Pan's Labyrinth: A Fairy Tale on Two Apparently Contradictory Ways to Face A Cruel Reality

Pan's labyrinth ("el laberinto del fauno", in Spanish) tells a story that develops during 1944, at the end of the Spanish civil war that started in 1936. The story takes place in rural Spain, on the border with France.

Although the fascists declared victory and took control of almost all of Spain in 1939, a retreating group of Republicans still fights a guerrilla war, hiding in the mountains. They are pursued by a detachment of the fascist army commanded by the cruel and sanguinary Captain Vidal. The fascist detachment is stationed in an old castle, next to a pan's labyrinth.

To that castle arrives the twelve years old Ofelia, accompanying to her pregnant mother ("sick of child", in Ofelia's words) who is the wife, by her second marriage, of Vidal. Ofelia's father is dead and she dislikes the idea of her mother being married to Vidal. She refuses to call him father or please him with her actions.

Ofelia meets a faun in the labyrinth near the castle and he tells her she is the reincarnation of a princess from the underground realm, who long ago got lost in the world of the mortals. In order to reclaim her rights as a princess, she must undergo three trials that will prove that her former essence is still uncontaminated by human weaknesses.

Te war ensues in all its brutality and Ofelia works on the trials. Ofelia's Mother dies giving birth to her brother.

At the end, the guerrilla defeats the army detachment and Ofelia is killed by Vidal, before he himself is executed by the victorious guerrilla.