Keswick Film Festival

Saturday 12th April 10:30 PM - Alhambra

The Orphanage
(El Orfanato)

Director: Juan Antonio Bayona Country: Mexico/Spain
Cert: 15 Year: 2007 Length: 105 minsLanguage: Subtitles
2008 Festival
The Orphanage

Audience Reaction

Score: 75.6% Attendance: 107

Links

  • More details on this film at the Internet Movie Database

This is a multi-award winner by debut director Bayona, with Pan's Labyrinth's del Toro as producer. Belen Rueda plays Laura, who returns in her 30's to take over the orphanage she was briefly in as a child. But soon her son Simon seems to see imaginary beings that she too sees. What's going on? The minimum of special effects provokes the maximum of fearful anticipation. When the sick boy goes missing, Laura's and her husband's search for the child is also a spooky, skilfully-made journey into the darker recesses of the human imagination.

Thanks to Optimum Releasing

Critics

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A superior ghost story…when [Laura] walks down a dark staircase, or into an unlit corridor or a gloomy room, we're tense and fearful, whether we're experiencing a haunted house or a haunted mind.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times







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