“You only find yourself when you disobey. Disobedience is the beginning of responsibility, I think.”
―
Guillermo del Toro
pan's labyrinth is a fairy-tale about the choices we make. it's about the way that life wants to take away from us what little we enter this world with. and most of all it is about how we may find liberation in disobedience. Ofelia has it rough, her mother is marrying a fascist named Vidal. Vidal is insane and at the very least has a severe case of o.c.d. and has a bad tendency to kill people. ofelia follows a fairy into the woods and finds a labyrinth garden and the doors it opens are what the film is about. later when she returns to the labyrinth she meets a faun who guides her through a series of trials that will allow ofelia to reclaim her immortality. the trials are complex and the choices not always apparent but what she finds is a redemption for the rest of us through her sacrifice.
the film is savage in it's violence both psychological and physical but with a purpose that torture porn never understands. the director Guillermo del toro like me is a fat man which is to say he is a slave to his passions which include moving parts, wombs, and monsters. mr del toro has directed everything from the sequel to blade too pacific rim but his masterpiece remains the Gothic fairy-tale pans labyrinth. the only thing i can find as a common thread in his diverse catalogue is a love of his passions and a humanity that the rest of the world would do good to learn from. and the humanity he brings to all of his films is still the highlight here. the desire to save life even when we know it must end. to fight the good fight and claim your own victory. to find immortality in a temporal world. to be told to do something and come too terms with the choice of disobedience. Ofelia is a little girl who took the responsibility for her own life. and a flower blooming on a tree has never meant so much.
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