This is necessary to make the film work because they are Just kids and no one believes in fantasies more than children. However with the first film The Spirit of the Beehive, Ana tends to believe more in a “spirit” rather than Carols in The Devil’s Backbone. The thing with Ana is she never really sees this spirit.
Yet The Spirit of the Beehive is a classic example of one strand of Spanish filmmaking at that time. Like many repressive regimes, Francoism attempted to use cinema to change its negative image abroad and to create the impression that freedom of expression was permitted.
Released in 1973, near the end of the Francoist regime in Spain, The Spirit of the Beehive is not outright in its anti-fascist intentions. However, subtle symbolism is dispersed throughout the narrative allowing the audience to form their own assumptions and interpret the underlying message.
Now surreal, unmoored, and odd, The Spirit of the Beehive careers from one strange vision to another, the fantasies of Ana and her circle always in contrast to the spirit of the beehive. This is a Cinema Paradiso for the anarchists among us, a testament to the liberating power of art, and a courageous, smiling indictment of conformity and hypocrisy.
