Pan's Labyrinth, winner of three Oscars including best cinematography, is one of the best films in recent years. It is a fairytale, political drama and action adventure rolled into one.
Set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, a dark time when life is cheap and expendable, the film begins with Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a bookish girl, travelling to a military outpost in the countryside. Her pregnant mother, who remarried a fascist military officer Vidal (Sergi Lopez), is accompanying her.
The film features plenty of monsters, including an ugly giant toad that is perhaps the most gluttonous reptile on the planet. But none of them is viler than Captain Vidal, a sadist who finds pleasure in torturing republican diehards when he is not obsessively shaving his face. He is also infatuated with his newborn baby - even at the expense of the mother's life.
Captain Vidal is hardly a good stepfather, and Ofelia feels increasingly unwanted after her mother falls ill. But the appearance of a faun brings hope to her life.
According to the faun and a group of eerie fairies who transform themselves from praying mantises, Ofelia is actually the princess of an underground fairy kingdom. She could return to the magical realm and live there happily ever after if she accomplishes three tasks to prove that she has not been corrupted by the human world.
The timing of Ofelia's missions parallel with Vidal's savage attack on the guerillas. The contrasts and similarities between reality, which is brutal and bloody, and the supernatural world, which possesses a dream-like quality, makes you wonder whether the story is a fairy tale in the guise of a nightmare or the other way round.