The Devil’s Backbone
(El Espinazo Del Diablo)

Screening on Film

Directed by Guillermo del Toro.
With Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi.
Spain/Mexico, 2001, 35mm, color, 106 min.
Spanish with English subtitles.
Print source: New Yorker Films

Guillermo del Toro casts a mesmerizing spell in this beautifully understated ghost tale set in a crumbling orphanage at the height of the Spanish Civil War. A mature work of poetic allegory, The Devil’s Backbone explores a child’s unerring perspective on war and loneliness and offers an evocative companion piece to del Toro’s recent breakthrough film Pan’s Labyrinth.