Cult 101: The Devil’s Backbone (2001)
Director: Guillermo del Toro Run Time: 106 min. Release Year: 2001
Starring: Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve, Íñigo Garcés, Marisa Paredes
Country: Spain, Mexico
Language: Spanish
About the film:
Twelve-year-old Carlos is the latest arrival to Santa Lucia School, an imposing stone building that shelters the orphans of the Republican militia and politicians during the last days of the Spanish Civil War. Carlos gradually uncovers the dark ties that bind the inhabitants of the school: hidden riches, sexual intrigue and the restless ghost of a murdered student.
“The work of a great stylist with a uniquely disturbing attraction to, and vision of, the frontier between life and death.”
—Paul Julian Smith, Sight & Sound
Often thought of as Guillermo del Toro’s most personal film, The Devil’s Backbone is a haunting film about the Spanish Civil War which he began work on in the mid-eighties, while he was still in school. Del Toro has frequently referred to the film as a “sister picture” to Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), another deeply personal—and political—film.
About the filmmaker:
Master storyteller Guillermo del Toro’s imaginative films have earned recognition at Cannes, Venice, and other festivals around the world. From Mexico, his Spanish language films earned him a place on the international stage beginning with his sensational 1993 feature debut Cronos, which was Mexico’s official submission to the Academy Awards, followed by The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and the universally acclaimed Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). His English-language features include Hellboy (2004), Pacific Rim (2013), and Crimson Peak (2015), followed by The Shape of Water (2017), which earned 3 prizes at Venice before winning Best Picture and Best Directing at the 2018 Academy Awards. His most recent features are Nightmare Alley (2021), which was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, and the stop-motion adaptation Pinocchio (2022), which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
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