Pan's Labyrinth, By Guillermo Del Toro

Approximately five years into Francisco Franco's regime, Pan’s Labyrinth takes place in Post-Civil War Spain as it reveals a beautiful childlike fantasy film with terrifying wonderment and curious delight. Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, the film depicts a dark fantasy that tells the story of our young protagonist, Ofelia and is told through this child's perspective. In the beginning of the film, Ofelia and her very pregnant mother travel to a military base near the mountains to live with her new stepfather, Captain Vidal, who is stationed there to fight against the rebels with his troops. One day, Ofelia wandered into the nearby forest and discovered an old, forgotten labyrinth, where she encounters a faun. The faun [Pan] tells her she is

The characters almost appear to represent the same character in different versions of themselves with the same struggle; accordingly, Ofelia is the child version and Mercedes is the adult version of the character. Ofelia is the child version of the character that attempts to carry out the child's struggle of conserving Pan's world and the Underworld, while Mercedes resistance towards Spanish fascism is her adult struggle. Just like there are parallels between the world, there are obvious parallels in the characters' actions. This can be can be seen in the scene of Ofelia's second task. Ofelia creates a magic door by using chalk in order to open a vault for the second task. Flashing back to the world we know, the adult version, Mercedes is in the kitchen, clearing away dirt off the floor to reveal a secret vault that filled with supples and messages for the rebels. The parallels are seen again as Mercedes signals the rebels with the two moons of her lantern and Ofelia is preparing to undertake her second task under the two moons in the bathroom. Just as Mercedes gives a copy of a key to her brother, which opens the secret vault mentioned earlier, Ofelia must also use a golden key in the second task that she retrieves in the first task. The symbolism of these characters suggests that they are both fighting the same, if not similar, battle. A battle to

That society begets cruel patriarchs of the world who ‘eat’ their children while having ‘sumptuous’ banquets on their tables. Goya's painting introduces an interesting cycle that also occurs within the film. The ‘consumption’ of the innocent stretches to Ofelia’s mother and mother-like figure, Mercedes, whose lives are devoured as well; this is also known as the “The curse of Kronos” or the Kronos complex. “Both she and the Spanish resistance refuse to pass on the curse of Kronos/Franco to another generation”(Spector, 2013). In the end, where Mercedes was asked by Captain Vidal to let his son known of him, and she said no. By not passing on the name, the history, the tradition ends. The death of Vidal fulfilled the prophecy of Kronos dethronement by his