Not a cute fairytale, but the product of imagination of the broken child.
No one knows if the other world we see in the movie is real or if it is just Ofelia’s imagination. I personally lean towards the second interpretation. Why would I say that? Because there is only one character who can see it all.
Ofelia is the main character of ’Pan’s Labyrinth’ and always feels alone. Her Dad has died and now she has to move with her pregnant mother to her sinister stepfather’s place. He seems to be one of the worst villains in the history of cinematography.
To stop her loneliness and despair, Ofelia creates her own world where she acts as a brave and adventurous girl and she sees a fairy, a fawn like the god, Pan, and other creatures. Initially she isn’t even surprised which suggests that she was prepared to see them because she made them up herself. The fawn asks her to complete 3 tasks so she can return back to her real world and finally meet her true father.
In addition, the storyline takes place in 1944 in Spain during the Civil War where the real world looks scary, dark and too dangerous for a 10 year old girl. People are dying fighting for their country and her Mum dies after giving birth to a son. Nothing seems normal anymore. I assume the story she created in her head is a method to escape this awful reality. Despite Ofelia’s attempt to do this she still dies. She refuses to sacrifice her brother even though the centaur says it’s a crucial part of opening up another world but Ofelia is adamant.
At the end of the movie she realises she cannot let anyone hurt the only person she loves (except for Mercedes who Ofelia thinks is dead) even though it means staying in the real world, full of pain.
Ofelia dies and sees the world she was dreaming of where she meets her mother who is alive and her father who has been waiting for her to return. A smile on Ofelia’s fading face tells us she is finally happy.
- Kseniia Pozdeeva
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