Spirit of the Beehive

This is the 19th post in our Movie of the Week series.



Spirit of the Beehive is a Spanish drama that was released in 1973. It was the directoral debut of Victor Erice and has been considered a masterpiece of Spanish cinema. The movie was released in the last years of Francisco Franco's dictatorship and it subtly criticizes post-civil war Spain.

The movie is set in 1940 where Ana lives with her older sister, aging father and young enamored mother. Her father spends all his time with his beehives and her mother spends her time writing to a distant lover. This leaves Ana with only her older sister Isabel for companionship. This companionship leads Ana to trouble when the pair of girls go to see Frankenstein. Ana is fascinated by the monster and Isabel tells her that the monster is a spirit that Ana can summon just by saying "It's me, Ana." But when Isabel takes Ana to an abandoned house and tells Ana it is where the monster lives, Ana finds herself journeying to the house in order to summon him. On one such trip she manages to summon a wounded republican soldier, whom she is convinced is the monster and decides to help.

The movie is beautifully created and immensely powerful. The film was well received by critics and has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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