The Mask of Zorro is one of my favourite films, in the sense that it’s a film I love but I kind of forget about it until I watch it and fall in love with it all over again. I think I’ve watched the sequel, The Legend of Zorro, a couple of times but it’s the first one that I truly love.

Elena is just fab – and no she’s not my namesake though I wouldn’t be mad if she was. I love how she’s kind, sensitive and a strong sense of justice but she sometimes struggles with that as it’s not seemly for an upstanding young lady in society to talk of and be passionate about such things. There are almost two sides to her, the one of the respectable lady in high society and then the young woman who knows how to sword fight and is not afraid to knock out a guard to rescue someone.

How she is conflicted when she learns the truth about her parentage is so believable. She’s grown up knowing one man as her father, and while he is not a nice person generally, he’s always loved her. So then learning that he’s been lying to her all her life and meeting her biological father gives her a whole mess of emotions. She doesn’t want the man she just learnt is her biological father to be hurt but equally she still cares about the man who raise her.

I just really like how feisty and strong and passionate Elena is for political issues and having a more just society. She is more than a match for both of her fathers, and for Alejando Murrieta aka Zorro.