Pan’s Labyrinth or El Laberinto del Fauno in Spanish is a 2006 dark fantasy drama film which was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Esperanto Filmoj and Warner Bros are the producers and responsible for the international distribution of the film. While Picturehouse holds the US rights distribution of the film.

The film started with a narration about a fairy tale story of a princess of the underworld name Moanna who is curious of the human world and decided to visit it. But the sunlight blinded her and erased her memory. Because of this, she became a mortal and dies. Her father become anguish of what happened to her but he is still hopeful that she will return. Because of this, he made a labyrinth which will serve as a portal for her return.

The film was set during the post-civil war Spain in 1944 and the story started with Ofelia, together with her pregnant mother and assistants travels to the mountain to live with her mother’s current husband, Captain Vidal. As they stop for a little rest in the forest, Ofelia saw a large stick insect which leads her to one of the labyrinths. Because of Ofelia’s interest in fairy tale books, she believes that the stick insect is a fairy. Later that night, the stick insect visits her in her room and turned in to a fairy. The fairy leads her to the labyrinth and there she meets the faun.

The faun believes that Ofelia was a reincarnation of Princess Moanna, the princess of the underworld. The faun gives Ofelia a book which will help her to complete the three tasks to achieve immortality. While this is happening, Vidal murders 2 farmers who Vidal suspiciously thought as a rebel but they are not really rebels. Ofelia’s first task was to get the key from the giant toad’s belly living inside the fig tree in the forest. Ofelia successfully accomplished this task.

Ofelia’s mother condition worsened as time goes by because of her pregnancy. Ofelia becomes worried with her mother’s condition which prevents her from accomplishing the second task. As a solution, the faun gave a mandrake root to Ofelia and instructs her to put it in a bowl of milk and put it under her mother’s bed. The faun instructs Ofelia to feed the mandrake root by giving it blood from her fingers. As soon as Ofelia did this, her mother’s condition has improved.

Knowing that her mother’s condition improved, Ofelia proceed to do the second task. Her second task was to take a dagger from the lair of scary Pale Man who eats children. She was accompanied by the three fairies given to her by the faun. The faun instructs her not to eat anything from the Pale Man’s Lair. She disobeyed the instruction of the faun by eating two grapes from the lair which awakened the Pale Man. The Pale Man eats two of the fairies and chases Ofelia. Ofelia manages to escape the Pale Man. The faun visits Ofelia after to know if she did the task. The faun was glad at first knowing that she achieved it but was angry when he knew about Ofelia’s disobedience to his instruction. Because of his anger, the faun didn’t give the third task to Ofelia.

Vidal and his team goes around the mountain to catch the rebels and they captured one in order for it to be interrogated and tortured. Vidal calls Doctor Ferreiro in order to tend the tortured captive. Vidal didn’t know that Dr. Ferreiro was also a rebel. Dr. Ferreiro euthanized his fellow rebel in order for it to no longer suffer. Vidal suddenly knew that Dr. Ferreiro is a rebel because the antibiotics that they got from the mountains is the same as what Dr. Ferreiro is using. After knowing this, Vidal killed Dr. Ferreiro.

After killing him, Vidal visits Ofelia’s mother and saw Ofelia under her mother’s bed together with the mandrake root. Disgusted with the smell of the mandrake root in a bowl of milk, he was about to discipline Ofelia but her mother insist that she will talk to her alone. She talks to Ofelia that because of her constant reading of fairy tale books, it corrupts her mind. Ofelia’s mother insists that magic does not exist and threw the mandrake root in to the fire. As soon as her mother threw the root, she collapses in pain which resulted in painful labor. Her mother does not survive the labor but the baby does.

Knowing that Vidal is killing the rebels, Mercedes, a rebel and a spy, decided to escape. She drops by to Ofelia to say good bye but Ofelia begged her to bring her with her. Ofelia and Mercedes attempted to escape during the rainy night but was caught by Vidal and his men.

Ofelia was locked up in a room while Mercedes was brought to the store room to be tortured. Mercedes escaped by using the knife she always hides to untie the rope and stabbed Vidal. Vidal survived the wounds that Mercedes inflicted to her and ordered his men to take her to him. As Mercedes escaped, she was being chased by Vidal’s army. As soon as Mercedes was about to be caught, the rebels killed Vidal’s men to rescue Mercedes.

In a locked room, the faun visited Ofelia to give her another chance to accomplish the last task. The last task is to bring his baby brother to the labyrinth. She successfully got her brother but she was being chased by Vidal. She met the faun at the entrance of the labyrinth and she was told that in order to open the portal, the blood of the innocent was needed. The faun suggested to drop few drops of blood from his brother but Ofelia refuses. The faun refuses to help her further because she can’t accomplish this.

When Vidal arrived at the labyrinth, he saw Ofelia talking to someone but no one was there. Vidal immediately takes the baby and shoots Ofelia. When he is about to leave the labyrinth with his child, he is cornered by the rebels together with Mercedes. Knowing that he can’t escaped and he will be killed, he gives his son to Mercedes. He instructed Mercedes to tell his son when he grew up about him and his time of death. Mercedes told him that his son will not know him when he grows up. Mercedes’ brother shoots Vidal which leads him to his death.

Mercedes enters the labyrinth and saw the dying Ofelia. She comforts Ofelia before she died. Drops of her from fall down to the altar which serves as a portal for Princess Moanna. As soon as Ofelia loss consciousness, she then appears in a golden throne room and was welcomed by the king of the underworld. The king told Ofelia that she is successful to the last task because she chooses to spill her own blood rather than his brother. The faun also appeared in the throne room and addressed her as “Her Majesty”. In the real world, Ofelia was seen smiling as she dies.

Although the film is categorized as magic realism, the film for me symbolizes as Ofelia’s escape to the harsh reality that is happening around her. Ofelia was forcefully brought up to an environment where war is happening.  The faun and his tasks serve as Ofelia’s distraction to what is happening around her. We can link the story to those children who is affected by the war that is happening to some parts of the globe. The most affected by the war are the children because at an early age, their innocence are tainted by the war and at an early age, they have to be forcefully think and act beyond their age because they don’t have the time to act as children because the environment is not suited for the children to play around and enjoy. The children are also forcefully having to accept that the world is harsh and they have to cope up with it. It is a good thing that Ofelia has a way for her to escape the reality that is happening but most of the children who is a victim of war doesn’t have anything to escape the reality, they have to accept it.

At first, the film have a positive and innocent vibe in it since the protagonist of the story is a little girl who has to escape reality with the help of a magical creature, but as the story progress, it becomes a little bit gory and dark which shocked me a little bit.  I realized that innocence is what builds our childhood and it is what made us enjoy it. The only concern I have with the film is that the characters are one dimensional. The characters stay the same throughout the story. There is no character growth especially with Ofelia. One example I can give which shows Ofelia being one dimensional is when her mother dies. She showed remorse when her mother dies but it doesn’t build her as a protagonist. The film is already good but it would be better if Ofelia showed a character growth.