The Spirit of the Beehive (Dir. Victor Erice, 1973)

Life enters: magic; a monster, life enters. A world: a mirror image of a hive; a hive: cells connected to the other side. Pollen: life’s command scattered on skin; Spirit: the will to honey. Work: what it takes to survive; what it takes to live: a diet of magic. Magic is uncanny—an interruption, like the poem. An interruption asks the question, Why is there anything at all? A crisis enters like a monster. Truth stands in the door, flower in hand. A vessel bears the truth in monstrous form. The world wants to kill it. A child holds a monster’s hand and walks through the door of wonder, sees a hive dancing like the sun in a mirror. Sees a man.