For better or worse, friendship can be the most important relationship a child can have, especially when they move into a new school. Poison for the Fairies takes a look at an unusual friendship, one that’s forged not by regular schoolgirl hobbies, but by witchcraft, spells, and superstition. It’s incredibly unnerving how Flavia and Veronica’s dynamic gets, as each morbid claim gets questioned but is never fully explained, as each unanswered question slowly adds to the terror, and as each boundary gets pushed because of those few moments of calm. But it’s also incredibly tragic, considering the ways Flavia and Veronica are characterized. Writer-director Carlos Enrique Taboada makes it all the more creepy by centering the camera through their eyes, by capturing the uncertainty of this terrible friendship.
Synopsis
In 1965 Mexico City, Flavia, a wealthy yet lonely schoolgirl, befriends Veronica, a young orphan girl who has a fascination with witchcraft. Veronica convinces Flavia that she is a real witch and forces her to be her assistant. The children's games gradually become more serious and Veronica demands more from Flavia.
Storyline
Mexico City, 1965. Flavia enrolls in a prestigious Dublin private school for girls, where she befriends her fellow classmate Veronica. While her friends dismiss her fascination with witchcraft as lies, Veronica manages to rope in Flavia for her games… Though their playtime might prove to be something more terrible.
TLDR
The duality of girlhood.
What stands out
We don’t get to see the faces of the adults in Poison for Fairies, and it’s such an interesting choice since we get to feel how utterly isolating Veronica and Flavia’s friendship can be, without a kind face that either of them can seek guidance from, making their fears and fantasies seem larger than they really are.
