
Pan's Labyrinth is a political fable that draws on fairytale conventions as Ofelia navigates life-threatening challenges in order to realise her true self. This is the Faun's third and final test, and Ofelia is admitted to the underworld to claim her throne alongside her deceased parents. When she refuses to relinquish the baby to Vidal, he shoots her dead. Carmen dies giving birth to Vidal's son, and Ofelia sacrifices her mortal life to protect her new brother. Ofelia meets a mysterious Faun (Doug Jones) who charges her with three tasks to prove that she is truly Princess Moanna. Meanwhile, rebel fighters are positioned in the hills, where they hope to destroy Vidal and his men. The film follows the journey of Ofelia and her mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), who have come to live with one of fascist dictator General Franco's brutal commanders, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez). He emphasises the importance of choice in the narrative: T thought it would be great to counterpoint an institutional lack of choice, which is fascism, with the chance to choose which the girl takes in this movie.' (3)
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(2) It takes up del Toro's signature tropes of family, children in danger, violence and brutality, and the burden of free will versus lack of control.

Pan's Labyrinth's mix of fantasy, horror and melodrama won over both critics and dedicated fans of genre pictures, and this wide-ranging appeal made it the most commercially successful Mexican film at that point.

While her capacity for filtering reality through the lens of her imagination is repeatedly compromised, ultimately, 'everything in Pan depends on the principle that seeing is believing'. Del Toro furnishes a fantastic cinematic diegesis whereby the interior universe of the imagination is valued just as much as the external world Ofelia's love of books and her capacity to look inwards and channel the power of stories becomes a form of political transgression. This makes the film robustly plural, and open to a range of interpretations and readings.

Portals that Princess Moanna's father opens up across the world, Pan's Labyrinth traverses disparate realms, presenting us with political, generic, stylistic, religious and literary 'openings'. Ofelia's fairytale-inflected book is a broader metaphor for the various crossroads or intersections present in the film. Dividing his work between blockbuster Hollywood offerings such as Hellboy (2004) and Pacific Rim (2013), and more personal Spanish-language films such as The Devil's Backbone (2001), del Toro presides over a stylistic crossroads, and Pan's Labyrinth incorporates this unconventional fluidity. Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro has a subversive interest in collapsing generic influences, and the film is a rich example of this tendency. High quality Pans Labyrinth inspired Scarves designed and sold by independent artists and designers from around the. The blank pages of the book will reveal the three tasks that she must perform in order to assume the identity of Princess Moanna of the underworld. 'The Book of Crossroads' is the title of the magical book that protagonist Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is given at the beginning of her heroic quest in Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006).
