Pan’s Labyrinth
Pan Labyrinth is an admittedly difficult movie to watch. There’s torture, war, an infant in peril, mothers dying, and the death of a child. Sure, a little girl becomes queen of the underworld in the end, but it also ends with the image of her dying in the real world after being shot by her stepfather. This is definitely a film not for FOR CHILDREN, but about children and truly told from a child’s perspective. But the movie’s breathless fairy tale wrapped around a historical narrative about the Spanish Civil War is undeniably powerful storytelling. And the bigger themes about the grim realities of war, resistance, and who to (and not to) trust are all vital ideas children need to learn to come of age…and Ivana Baquero is perfect as the child who learns everything the hard way.
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