‘THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE’ Dictators and Monsters

During the reign of Francisco Franco in Spain, freedom of speech did not exist. The only way artists could denounce this tyrannical regime was via indirect critique; hence they resorted to fantasy and allegory. “The Spirit of the Beehive” (1973) by Victor

Now considered a masterpiece, it wasn’t well received during its initial release, mainly due to its slow-pace and lack of conventional narrative. The apparent lack of ‘content’ was a direct result of political tyranny— ostensibly it was a film about a sensitive, small girl with an active imagination, though its subtext was a scathing political indictment of Spanish society under Franco’s dictatorship.

The young protagonist of the film, Ana, is haunted after seeing the 1931 horror film “Frankenstein” at a local theater. Her sister Isabel lies to Ana that the spirit of the monster is alive, even though they killed it in the film. Ana is sensitive, and her wide-eyed innocence is symbolic of people who suffered under the Francoists; Isabel, with her lies and sadistic behavior represents Franco’s regime, obsessed with brute power.

Fuelled by Isabel’s lies, Ana comes to a point where she hallucinates: after running away to the woods, she imagines the Frankenstein monster trying to strangle her. Notice how the Frankenstein monster is a direct personification of Franco (even the names have a similar ring!) trying to strangle the innocence of humanity, shown in Ana’s character. The film’s complex symbolism does not end there.

Superficially, the beehive in the title refers to the hobby of Ana’s father (Fernando), who spends most of his time beekeeping. As the film progresses, we notice the hexagonal pattern on Fernando’s honeycombs (in his artificial beehive) are also present in the window-panes of the family house. The recurring motif of the hexagonal window-panes, juxtaposed alongside the main characters signify a society under dictatorship—ordered on the outside, but without individuality or freedom…much like bees in the beehive. Furthermore, the film was edited and shot to convey this sense of personal alienation: the framing is mostly in long-shots, and the family is never seen in a single-frame, even when they are having dinner together; the colors are muted, with light and shadow used masterfully by famed cinematographer Luis Cuadrado.

The most challenging aspect of the film is its pace; yet it’s important to keep in mind that the world we see is seen through the eyes of a child. Thus the pacing denotes the confusion and anxieties not only of Ana, but her emotionally paralyzed parents. The family in “The Spirit of the Beehive” is a microcosm of Spanish society under the sway of tyranny; thus the prevalent ‘spirit’ is a uniform pattern of behavior that needs to be broken, which is seen in the climax: Ana, after her traumatic hallucination, opens her bedroom windows (with hexagonal patterns), symbolically achieving freedom—in turn denoting hope for a repressed society.