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Review

It could be the surface of the moon, except for the rusted, dilapidated vehicle heading toward the decrepit, ramshackle building looming in the middle of nowhere. Ten-year-old Carlos doesn’t know when he enters the gates of this forlorn orphanage that his stay there is indefinite. His traveling companions go off to their uncertain fates as combatants during these final days of the Spanish Civil War. The inhabitants of this questionable refuge are all collateral damage of the war outside, whose presence is manifested by the unexploded aerial bomb imbedded in the middle of the courtyard. Carlos becomes aware of the conflicted interrelations of the adults (as children always do) as he becomes aware of a restless spirit, “the one who sighs,” permeating the environs. Director del Toro creates an effectively eerie atmosphere, drawing the audience into this isolated community of souls who seem to teeter on the brink of the spirit world; indeed, the dead assist the living in confronting the prosaic horrors of everyday life in wartime. A secret is revealed and a death avenged, and poverty and disease are discovered to be without doubt the devil’s backbone.

The Devil’s Backbone is the first title in director del Toro’s projected Spanish Civil War trilogy. Pan’s Labyrinth is the second, and the third entry 3993 has an announced release date of 2009. (Spanish with English subtitles)

 -- Ann Yarabinee