Has anyone else seen this film? What did you think?

I went to see it three weeks ago in my local, tidgy, cinema. It was on for one night only and extra chairs were brought in from the surrounding pubs to accommodate everyone!

I was utterly captivated throughout, and have even bought it on DVD (I've never done that before).

I'm DYING to see this movie. (okay, not literally!) As you know, it was nominated for LOTS of Goya Awards and won a number of them too. They say it's a kind of metaphor for the Spanish Civil War but not having seen the movie I can't yet understand what that metaphor is. The few scene-clips I'd seen made me squirm in my seat with "ooooohhh... I've gotta see that!"

What?? You've bought the DVD ALREADY? It's ALREADY on DVD???? I wonder if it's available here in Spain then. Maybe so. I can watch it with the much-needed subtitles.

Saludos, MadridMan

Yes, I didn't know it was nominated for anything until after I'd seen it.

It's certainly very special, and I am going to tell you nothing about it, because it needs you to watch it with no clues or preconceptions. Try not to read too much about it before you go - or look at too many images either.

It's beautiful and horrifying and mystic and sad and very very real - although a lot of it is fantasy. There, none of that makes any sense and I'm sure wont spoil anything for you

I pre-ordered it from www.Amazon.co.uk where it is being released tomorrow (13 March).

I hope you get to see it soon MM.

Hello,
This film is not really about the Spanish Civil War.
The story, wich occurs in 1944, five years later of General Franco's victory, is about the Maquis.
The Maquis were the Republican guerrilla fighters or the Resistance against the new dictatorship in Spain.
I know one of those maquis. He was seriously hurt in action and, because of that, he had to scape to France. He couldn't return to Spain until the democracy here was consolidated.
When he joined the maquis he was a very young man. He was from a very poor family of farmers in a small village in the province of Cuenca.
He really believed in his ideals of freedom and democracy. They were real freedom fighters.
I know that man, he's an honest person, I really believe him when I look at his eyes. Listening to him you can feel the sentiment that once pushed him to fight, risking his life for its ideals.
Of course others consider those men terrorists. I know this is not a place to talk about politics.
I just will tell you that the story told in Laberinto del Fauno was nearly the same as the "batalla de Cerro Moreno" in 1949, from wich the man I told you, had scaped a few days before.
It wasn't a real batle, there were around 1,000 Guardia Civiles against 18 maquis, some of them teenagers. It was simply a massacre.

http://www.panslabyrinth.com/
http://www.clubcultura.com/clubcine/clubcineastas/guillermodeltoro/ellaberintodelfauno/
http://es.geocities.com/paisajes_guerrilla/cerro_moreno.html

Please, excuseme for my bad English, I hope that you understand my last post.
Thanks

I watched this film and really liked it, although some of the scenes were pretty graphic...but either way,good movie.

Not only Goya Awards, but Oscars (R), too. The film got 6 nominations this year, 3 of them (Cinematography, Art direction, and Makeup) were awarded with the little golden statue.

It's an amazing, beautiful, and disturbing film. I saw it in Philadelphia a month or so ago, and for a good 10 minutes after it ended, the friend I went with and I were nearly speechless.

The timing was perfect, too: The week before I saw the film, I had read the book "Los niños perdidos del franquismo" which deals with basically the same period. So all the business about the rebels in the hills made much more sense to me than it might have otherwise.

Unlike some films about Spain in the 1930s or 1940s, this one does not require any previous knowledge of the Civil War or the brutal post-war period: it's utterly clear what's going on.