Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Academy Awards, USA 2007

Won Oscar	Best Achievement in Cinematography Guillermo Navarro
	Best Achievement in Art Direction Eugenio Caballero (art director) Pilar Revuelta (set decorator)
	Best Achievement in Makeup David Martí Montse Ribé
Nominated Oscar	Best Writing, Original Screenplay Guillermo del Toro
	Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score Javier Navarrete
	Best Foreign Language Film of the Year Mexico.

Picturehouse
Directed by Guillermo del Torro
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, New Line)

A pregnant woman and her young daughter move to the countryside of Spain to live with a military officer during the days of World War II and Franco's fascist regime. Surrounded by violence and intimidation, the girl escapes into a fantasy world populated by fairies and fauns. The end result is an odd mixture: sadistic, jarring violence countered with a rather paint-by-numbers fantasy story with the girl undertaking a journey to complete a series of tasks. The best part of the film, however, involves neither, but rather the relationship between the girl and her mother, but even that tends to resort to melodramatics. It's all exquisitely photographed by Guillermo Navarro.