Somewhere in the wilderness, somewhere in the hinterland of Spain. The fields have been harvested, everything seems to be deserted. Away from the rest of the world, there stands a dilapidated house without windows or doors. A family lives there. The two girls Ana and Isabel, and their parents Fernando and Teresa. Fernando is a beekeeper. A scientist and poet. Teresa is a lonely woman who writes letters of longing to imaginary men. Sometimes Fernando and Isabel talk, but their conversations seem empty. An exciting day begins in the nearby village. The cinema arrives! A truck brings the equipment, the children rejoice. "Frankenstein" is shown. We see the scene in which the creature approaches the girl at the river. Then a cut, probably due to the censorship. What we do not see: The monster submerging the girl. But the following sequence in which the monster apparently throws the girl into the water with great pleasure, so that she swims. This makes a big impression on Ana and Isabel. This misunderstanding is supposed to determine the events around the two daughters in Victor Ercie's Spirit Of The Beehive, probably the greatest of all Spanish films! The film premiered in the cinema in 1973. It is set in no specific time, but you can see that it must have been right after the civil war. Shortly after General Franco came to power. Although Ana and Isabel are almost the same age, Ana needs her sister to explain the secrets of the world to her. What was it like in the Frankenstein movie? All fake, explains Isabel. And the wounded soldier there in the barn? Isabel explains to Ana that he is still alive. A ghost. And so Ana starts to bring the wounded man food and water and the father's coat. Of course we have to consider the film as an encrypted code. As a parable about Franco's Spain. But I didn't stop myself from putting together all the pieces of the puzzle about Franco's fascist regime. The Spirit Of The Beehive is a poetic film about how children think and feel. How they throw themselves into disaster, but also how they save themselves from the consequences. The family home seems to be empty. We hear the echo of the steps in the rooms. The girls are often alone. So are the parents in separate rooms. Many of the father's poems are about the mindless bustling activity of the bees. A reflection of the Franco era? But much more interesting is the surface of the film. Ana's efforts to "capture the spirit" could also be dangerous for her and her family... The Spirit Of The Beehive was one of only three masterpieces Erice directed. A film that stands all alone without its peers. A simple and serious, even solemn work. One of the most beautiful films of all time!
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