Not only recognized as one of the key films in Spanish film history, but also one of the most beguiling films about childhood in all world cinema, Victor Erice’s 1973 debut feature is set in a Castilian village in 1940. Six-year-old Ana (Ana Torrent) and her older sister live with their parents, attending school, exploring the woods, and, one fateful evening, attending a traveling movie show of James Whale’s Frankenstein. Ana is touched and also perplexed by the film, and the lessons she takes away with her prove consequential.
A tapestry of sound and images, Spirit of the Beehive distills not just a specific time and place, but lived experience.
Erice’s latest film, Close Your Eyes, also screens in our New Spanish Cinema program.
Spirit of the Beehive is one of those seminal movies that seeped into my very soul.
Guillermo del Toro
One of the most beautiful films I have ever seen… a masterpiece.
Roger Ebert
Book Tickets
Sunday January 07, 3:30 pm, VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre Book Now
Monday January 08, 5:15 pm, VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre Book Now
