The Spirit of the Beehive is a movie directed by Victor Erice. The movie is about a gullible six-year-old girl called Anna who is detached from her parents. The film was made in 1973 when Spanish directors were restricted from making films depicting republican sympathizers. In Spain, the film was almost censored due to the display of Republican sympathizer. The Spirit of the Beehive was set in the year 1940 in the Castilian plateau after Franco won the civil war. After the victory over the Republican forces, Francoists still hunted down the opponents’ adherents.
Ana and her elder sister, Isabel, attend the screening of James Whale’s Frankenstein. The movie has a significant impact on Ana. Isabel takes advantage of her sister’s gullibility to dupe her that she can communicate with the monster. Frankenstein is about a monster that kills a little girl, and Ana enquires why the incident occurs. However, Isabel tells her that everything in the movies is not real and the girl is not dead. Additionally, Isabel deceives her little sister that she can communicate with the monster if she closes her eyes and speaks to it.
Ana is obsessed with the monster’s story. One day, Isabel strolls with her to a deserted sheepfold. Isabel then lies to Ana that the sheepfold houses the monster. When Ana finds a fugitive in the sheepfold, she believes that he is the monster she watched on Frankenstein. Generally, Erice depicts the imagination of children to display the shadow left over Spain by General Franco.
