Helen's Blog /

The fables of peasants in "The Enchanted Forest" - "El Bosque Animado" are typically Gallician folklore.

"The Enchanted Forest", Jose Luis Cuerda's bittersweet fantasy set in Galicia in northwest Spain in the 1920's celebrates the enduring character of the Spanish peasant: his passions, biases, superstitions, strengths and weaknesses.

A series of interlocking tales about mercilessly picturesque characters who live in or near the forest of the film's title tell of Gerardo, a poor well-digger whose wooden leg is so much shorter than his real one and has trouble attracting women. Malvis is a would be bandit who scares nobody. There is a lonely ghost; a beautiful, overworked kitchen maid; a witch, and some rich landowners.

To see "The Enchanted Forest" - "El bosque animado", you have to come to the Rustic region of Northwestern Spain - Gallicia.

The Spanish film, based on the book by Wenceslao Fernandez Florez, based on human characters as well as animal and vegetable ones, was directed by José Luis Cuerda.

Its characters, Marica da Fame, Pilara, Fuco, Fendestestas, Fiz de Cotovelo, O señor D'abondo, Manueliño, el loco de Vos; Gerardo and Hermelinda are fantasy figures living in the woods.

You imagine them and they are converted in animated reality.

When no-one's around, the mysterious woods of Cecebre abound in talking animals and even oak, chestnut and birch trees. Weeping willows express themselves. Trees sport a mouth and speak! This is an allegory of the human world, where everything natural is abused.