Pan's Labyrinth is a Mexican/Spanish dark fantasy drama film written and directed by Guillermo

del Toro.
The story takes place in Spain during the summer of 1944, five years after the Spanish Civil War,
during the early Francoist period. The narrative intertwines/interlaces this real world with a
mythical world centred on an overgrown/giant and abandoned labyrinth and a
mysterious creature, with whom the main character, Ofelia, interacts. Ofelia's stepfather,
the Falangist Captain Vidal, hunts the Spanish Maquis who fight against the Francoist regime in
the region, while Ofelia's pregnant mother Carmen grows increasingly ill. Ofelia meets several
strange and magical creatures who become central to her story, leading her through the trials of
the old labyrinth garden.
Argument/ Plot
The narrator explains that a long, long time ago in the underground kingdom, where there is no lie,
nor pain lived a princess who dreamed with the world of humans, dreamed with the blue sky, the
soft breeze and the bright sun. One day mocking/ deceiving all surveillance the princess
escaped. Once outside, the sunlight blinded her and erased any trace of the past from her
memory. The princess forgot who she was, where she came from. His body suffered cold, illness
and pain. And over the years she died. However, his father, El Rey, knew that the princess's soul
would perhaps return in another body, in another time and in another place, so he opened portals
around the world awaiting her return and he would wait until his last breath, until the world stopped
spinning.

Ofelia a 11-year-old girl lover of the stories, is travelling with her pregnant but sickly mother,
towards a small town to the north of Spain, where they will meet the new stepfather of Ofelia, the
captain of the Armed Police; Vidal entrusted to eliminate/ Responsible for eliminating the last
signs/indications of the republican guerrillas hidden in the mounts/mountains after the civil
war in 1944. In the way, Ofelia comes across with a strange insect with form of mantis, that follows
her.
Upon arriving at the camp, Ophelia meets the captain and becomes visible that he is an
unpleasant man. In this camp, located next to a mill, Ofelia meets Mercedes one of the workers in
this place, who, together with Dr. Ferreiro, supplies undercover medicines and food to the rebels
of the mountains.
.
Next to the mill are the ruins of an old and strange labyrinth that intrigues Ofelia. During the
first night, the strange insect visits Ophelia and guides her into the labyrinth. There, she finds a
statue and a faun that reveals a great secret to her. The faun tells her that she is really a princess
and that her father is desperately looking for her. In order to return, Ofelia must pass three tasks
and show that her essence is intact.
The faun gives her a blank book that will allow her to finish the tasks; with this book, the faun also
gives him three amber stones for her first mission. That night, Ofelia sees Mercedes ask for
medicines from Dr. Ferreiro to heal the leg of one of the members of the guerrilla team. Shortly
before, Vidal killed a hunter and his son when they complained about a requisition that made the
captain suspect that they were guerrillas, although they were only hunting rabbits in the
mountains.

The first task is carried out/takes place the next day. It consists of entering a cave located in the
roots of a dying tree and finding a frog/toad that is killing the plant slowly. After finding him, she
should feed him the three stones and extract/remove a golden key from his belly. Ofelia
completes this task, but in doing so, she ruins the dress her mother made her for that night´s
dinner. This disappoints her mother, who punishes Ophelia that night.

The faun warns Ophelia that her second mission will be very dangerous and gives her a case that
houses three magic fairies that will help her in her mission. He also gives her a piece of chalk (to
make her way) and a sand clock to tell the exact time her mission should/must last. The faun
tells her that she should not eat anything in the place of her mission because there lives a being
that is not human.

That same night, Ofelia prepares to fulfill her second mission. Draw a door on the wall with chalk.
When she opens this door, she sees another very strange room. Before going down to the room,
she turns the sand clock (she must return before the clock´s sand finishes falling) and frees the
fairies, whom direct her towards small doors in the wall, like safety boxes.
In this room there is also a large table full of appetizing/tasty food of many kinds and,
seated/sitting, there was a monster without eyes (the pale man). On the walls are paintings of
this monster killing and eating small children. Aside, there's a pile of children's shoes that suggests
a terrible fate

Ophelia uses the key she got from the toad's belly to open one of the three doors on the wall. She
decides to open the door to the left even though/ in spite of the fact that the fairies told her that
she should open the one in the middle. From this one she takes out a dagger. As she proceeded
to the exit, Ofelia could not resist the temptation to eat two grapes, regardless of the warning that
the Faun had previously done to her or paying attention to the warnings of the fairies at that
time/moment.

This causes the pale man to wake up and, with his eyes hidden in the palms of his hands, he
prepares to attack Ophelia. The fairies rush to defend her, but the monster captures two of them
and gives them death taking off their heads with his mouth. Ophelia rushes to the exit, but her time
runs out before she gets there and the door closes in front of her. Frightened/scared, she
manages to create another door on the roof and escape with a single fairy moments before the
monster reaches her.

In the evening/By night , the Faun visits Ophelia to find out the outcome of the second mission.
With tears in her eyes, Ophelia begins to explain that she had an accident, but before she can
continue, the fairy who survived this journey hurries to tell the Faun what happened. The Faun,
furious, tells Ophelia that he made a mistake and that she is not the chosen one. By disobeying
the rules, Ophelia exhausted her chances of returning to her kingdom with her parents and should
continue to live as a human. he Faun disappears in the shadows and leaves Ophelia
weeping/crying.

In the third Task, the Faun asks her to bring her newborn brother to the labyrinth with her. She
obeys, she escapes with the magic chalk of her room and throws laudanum in the drink of the
captain to sleep him (Dr. Ferreiro had prescribed laudanum to Ofelia's mother so that she could
sleep at night and Ophelia had appropriated the jar after her death).
Ofelia takes the boy to the Labyrinth, where she meets the Faun. This asks her for the child and
tells her that to open the portal to her kingdom she must spill/shed innocent blood. Ophelia
refuses to hurt her brother in spite of the constant demands of the faun. This one, very
annoyed/angry/upset, takes a step backwards and tells her to do whatever she wants. At that
moment Vidal who cannot see the Faun arrives, takes away the baby from the Ophelia’s hands,
shoots her and leaves/left her bleeding on the ground at the entrance to the well that/which gives
access to the world of the Faun.

He blood drips/leaks from above on/over the strange statue of the Faun's cave/grotto and the
light of the full moon works a miracle: in Ofelia's face a smile is born. In a last vision, she sees
herself in a golden palace in front of her parents, the king and queen (her mother Carmen) of the
underground world. The last task was to shed/drip innocent blood to the portal for her to enter
alive, but she preferred to give her blood instead of /rather than her little brother´s. Ophelia
becomes the princess and is ready to live forever in her palace. Meanwhile, the earthly Ophelia
dies in the arms of Mercedes.

The narrator then says that she reigned/ruled with justice/wisely for many centuries and that
she was loved by all her subjects. He also says that any indication of her existence in this world
was erased, except for the small details (a white flower tillering on the formerly moribund tree)
visible only to those who know where to look for.