The Spirit of the Beehive

The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colemna (1973)) is a beautiful Spanish film directed by Victor Erice. The film is based in a small Castilian village in 1940, during post-Spanish Civil War. A young girl Ana attends a showing of Frankenstein (1931) with her older sister Isabel. Ana becomes entranced by the monster and the film itself, although she doesn't quite understand the reasoning behind the deaths that occur in it. She asks her sister about the deaths, but Isabel explains that the deaths didn't really occur because it was only in the movie; she then claims that the spirit of the monster lives nearby them. Ana becomes obsessed with meeting the spirit.

This film is slow-moving at first, but trust me, it's definitely worth sitting through. The cinematography is breathtaking, especially the images of the countryside and throughout the house. The film tells its story through symbolic imagery and from the perspective of an innocent child as she views the world. I highly recommend watching this film.