Blancanieves 2013

As a captivating Spanish retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s classic, Blancanieves explores the tumultuous life of Carmen, a young girl whose mother perished during childbirth. Following a traumatic bullfighting accident, her father is left paralyzed, leading to her care being entrusted to her grandmother. Tragically, after her grandmother’s passing, Carmen finds herself under the oppressive rule of her stepmother, who married her father solely for his fame and fortune. This bitter woman mistreats Carmen’s helpless father, often confining him to a room, yet Carmen makes every effort to connect with him through simple gestures.

Living under constant fear from her stepmother’s cruelty, Carmen is compelled one day to venture into the woods to gather flowers. Unfortunately, a huntsman is dispatched to hunt her down; he attempts to drown her and leaves her for dead. In a stroke of fate, she is discovered by a group of bullfighters who rescue her from the waters. Regaining consciousness, Carmen is stripped of her past memories, including her name. The bullfighters affectionately name her Blancanieves (Snow White) because of her strikingly pale complexion. As she grows closer to these individuals, who are a traveling circus of bullfighters with dwarfism, she discovers an unexpected talent for bullfighting—skills she unknowingly honed during her childhood practice sessions with her father.

News of Carmen’s success as a bullfighter reaches her stepmother, who, upon realizing that the girl she believed to be dead has returned, attends one of her fights disguised in a veil. Following a triumphant performance in the ring, where the audience showers her with flowers, the stepmother extends a poisoned apple to Carmen. Unaware of the impending danger, she takes a bite and collapses, causing chaos in the crowd. In a somber turn of events, she is placed inside a glass coffin, mistaken for dead by those surrounding her. However, rather than granting her the peace she deserves, they concoct a spectacle, charging onlookers for the chance to kiss the famed bullfighter, Blancanieves. The film concludes with a poignant scene of Carmen lying in the coffin, a single tear rolling down her cheek, encapsulating the tragic beauty of her story.