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The Spirit of the Beehive
(El Espíritu de la colmena)

Screening on Film
Directed by Victor Erice.
With Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent.
Spain, 1973, 35mm, color, 98 min.

The Spirit of the Beehive is a haunting allegorical film on innocence and illusion, set in post-Civil War Spain. Ana and Isabel, two lonely young sisters, see the film Frankenstein at a makeshift theater. Ana, unsettled by the brutal acts of the monster and the townspeople in the film, desperately seeks explanation. Taking her to an abandoned barn, Isabel claims to see the immortal spirit of the monster in the well; Ana becomes obsessed with the idea of befriending it. The Spirit of the Beehive is a deceptively lyrical tale of idyllic childhood memories and a disturbing portrait of isolation.

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