As Bestas Rodrigo Sorogoyen «PREMIUM»

Released in 2022, As Bestas (international title: The Beasts) is a Spanish-French co-written and directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, one of the most compelling voices in contemporary European cinema. Following his Goya-winning political thriller El Reino (2018), Sorogoyen shifts gears from urban power corridors to the rugged, mist-shrouded mountains of Galicia. The result is a slow-burn, devastatingly tense drama that explores xenophobia, land disputes, ecological greed, and the thin veneer of civilization. The film swept the Goya Awards, winning nine awards including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

The title is a clever trap. Who are the beasts?

On the surface, it is Xan and Lorenzo. Luis Zahera delivers a volcanic, Goya-winning performance as Xan—a man so poisoned by resentment that his face twitches with barely contained rage. He is not a cartoon villain. He is a product of a dying rural economy who sees a foreigner dictating the terms of his survival. When Xan snarls, "You don’t know what hunger is," he reveals the wound: the urban elite preserving nature for their own aesthetic pleasure while rural communities starve.

Yet, the film forces us to look at Antoine. Is his stubborn idealism a form of monstrosity? He claims to be defending the landscape, but he is willing to sacrifice the economic well-being of an entire village for his principles. He refuses to compromise, to negotiate, or to leave. In the context of the community, his sainthood looks like arrogance. Sorogoyen refuses to pick a side. The beasts are not the brothers; the beast is the situation itself—a zero-sum game where empathy dies.

Just when you think As Bestas is a simple "city vs. country" revenge thriller, Sorogoyen executes a brilliant tonal shift in the final forty minutes. After the central act of violence (which will not be spoiled here), the narrative focus moves from Antoine to his wife, Olga.

Marina Foïs delivers a masterclass in transformation. Olga is initially the more timid of the couple—she speaks broken Spanish, she mediates, she pleads for peace. After tragedy strikes, she morphs into a cold, calculating avenger. She does not pick up a gun or a machete. Instead, she weaponizes bureaucracy, law, and language.

In a stunning sequence, Olga walks into the local municipal office and, in perfectly articulated Galician (a dialect she previously struggled with), systematically dismantles the brothers' alibi. The final confrontation is not a shootout in a barn, but a wiretap in a police station. Sorogoyen suggests that civilization’s most powerful weapon isn’t brutality—it is patience and intelligence. The ending is ambiguous, gut-wrenching, and deeply satisfying in its moral complexity.

Sorogoyen, who previously directed the thriller The Candidate (El Reino), proves here that he is a master of pacing.

The visual language of the film contributes heavily to the anxiety. The camera often lingers just a beat too long on a character’s face. The framing is tight and claustrophobic, even when surrounded by the lush, green, open landscapes of Galicia. This creates a paradox: the world is beautiful, but there is nowhere to run.

The sound design is equally pivotal. The silence of the rural night is repeatedly shattered by the intrusion of the neighbors. The absence of a soundtrack in key scenes forces the audience to listen to the environment, turning every snapping twig or distant dog bark into a potential threat.

The search term "as bestas rodrigo sorogoyen" surged after the 2023 Goya Awards. The film won nine awards, including Best Actor for Denis Ménochet and Best Supporting Actor for Luis Zahera (a raw, volcanic turn that has become iconic).

But the film’s cultural impact goes beyond trophies. It ignited a national conversation in Spain about la España vacía (the Empty Spain). For decades, Spanish cinema portrayed the countryside as bucolic or comedic. Sorogoyen shows it as a pressure cooker of resentment. The conflict between the environmentalist couple and the struggling farmers mirrors real tensions across Europe: the clash between post-industrial green capitalism and the gritty survival instincts of the working class.

The film is based on a true story that occurred in the Galician countryside in 2010. It follows Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs), a French couple who have abandoned city life to live as eco-friendly farmers in a small, depopulated village in inland Galicia. They restore an abandoned house, cultivate organic vegetables, and aim for self-sufficiency.

However, their presence ignites a brutal conflict with their neighbors, two local brothers—Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido)—who are deeply invested in selling their inherited land to a wind energy company. The proposed installation of massive wind turbines would make the brothers millionaires. Antoine, acting as the community's spokesperson, votes against the project at a town meeting, fearing the environmental destruction and the industrialization of the landscape. The deal collapses.

What follows is a masterclass in psychological warfare. The brothers begin a campaign of low-level intimidation that escalates into life-threatening aggression—vandalized crops, poisoned dogs, anonymous threats, and a suffocating atmosphere of silent hostility. The rest of the village, bound by family ties or fear, refuses to intervene. As Antoine’s stubborn idealism clashes with Xan’s brute force and Lorenzo’s cold cunning, the film spirals toward an inevitable, shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, Olga must navigate the hostile terrain alone, seeking justice in a place where the law has no real power.

As Bestas premiered at the Cannes Film Festival (Premiere section) to rave reviews, winning the Cannes Soundtrack Award. It went on to become a massive critical and commercial hit in Spain and France.

Major Awards (Goya 2023):

Critics praised it as "a rural western," "Hitchcockian in its suspense," and "an essential portrait of modern Spain."

As Bestas is not an easy watch. It is long, bleak, and often hopeless. But it is essential viewing.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen has crafted a film that asks a terrifying question: If you strip away laws, police, and social media, what are you? The French idealist thinks he is a shepherd. The Galician farmer thinks he is a king. As Bestas suggests that, in the end, we are all just animals fighting over a carcass.

For lovers of international cinema, psychological horror, or simply those who want to see what the best of modern Spanish filmmaking looks like, As Bestas is an unmissable, savage masterpiece. Do not watch it alone. Do not watch it in the dark. And never, ever turn your back on the land.

Keywords: As Bestas Rodrigo Sorogoyen, The Beasts movie review, Rodrigo Sorogoyen Goya Awards, Spanish thriller As Bestas, Galician cinema, Denis Ménochet, Luis Zahera, rural horror films.

(2022), directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen , is a masterful rural thriller that explores the terrifying heights of xenophobia and neighborly conflict in a remote Galician village. Co-written with his longtime collaborator Isabel Peña

, the film is a taut psychological drama that transforms a dispute over land and wind turbines into a haunting meditation on violence and resilience. Key Narrative Pillars The Conflict as bestas rodrigo sorogoyen

: Antoine and Olga, a middle-aged French couple, have settled in a dying Spanish village to practice organic farming and restore abandoned homes. Their refusal to sign a deal for a wind energy project—which would grant the impoverished locals a small payout—ignites a brutal feud with two local brothers, Xan and Lorenzo. Escalating Tension

: Sorogoyen uses long, unhurried takes and powerful dialogue to build a "law of the jungle" atmosphere. The film's first half is defined by male-driven, physical intimidation, while the second shift focuses on Olga’s quiet, stubborn determination to seek justice after a catastrophe strikes. The Performances Denis Ménochet

delivers a powerhouse performance as the beleaguered Antoine, while Marina Foïs anchors the film's emotional core as Olga. Luis Zahera

, as the menacing Xan, provides a chilling portrayal of deep-seated resentment. Critical Success and Themes My 2023: A Year Interrupted | Nobody Knows Anybody 1 Jan 2024 —

Multiple scenes in As bestas (Rodrigo Sorogoyen, 2022): in the bar, the one with the game of dominoes, and the one where Antoine ( nobodyknowsanybody.com The Beasts (As Bestas) - film review - DMovies 19 Sept 2022 —

Language and family trivia aside, The Beasts is a gripping rural thriller with a duration of 130 minutes that fly by very quickly.

The Beasts (as Bestas), Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Denis Ménochet, 2022

(internationally titled The Beasts) is a visceral 2022 rural thriller directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who solidified his reputation as a master of modern suspense with this multi-Goya-winning production. The Narrative: A Modern Western in Galicia

The film follows Antoine and Olga (played by Denis Ménochet and Marina Foïs), a middle-aged French couple who have settled in a remote village in Galicia, Spain, to pursue organic farming and restore abandoned houses. Their idealistic "back-to-the-land" dream curdles into a nightmare when they oppose a wind farm project that promised life-changing payouts to the impoverished locals.

This disagreement triggers a escalating conflict with their neighbors, particularly the brothers Xan and Lorenzo (Luis Zahera and Diego Anido), whose hostility morphs from petty harassment into a "law-of-the-jungle" dynamic of physical and psychological intimidation. Thematic Depth and Direction

Sorogoyen, working with longtime co-writer Isabel Peña, uses the film to explore deep-seated social and environmental tensions:

Xenophobia and Identity: The film highlights the "insider vs. outsider" rift, where the French couple is branded as "Monsieur" and never truly accepted by the locals who have suffered through generations of rural decay.

Green Energy Conflict: It serves as a critique of how large-scale renewable energy projects can cause social fragmentation in rural areas, often being viewed as "the intruder" rather than a solution.

The Anthropocene: Academic analyses often link the film to environmental humanities, noting how it depicts the struggle to reconcile global ecological crises with the harsh realities of daily survival in "España vaciada" (Empty Spain). Critical Reception

Performance: Luis Zahera’s performance as the menacing Xan has been described as "possessed," while Ménochet and Foïs are praised for their portrayal of grounded, stubborn resilience.

Style: The film is noted for its "sombre cinematography" and a script that allows the tension to build slowly before a harrowing conclusion.

Accolades: As Bestas was a major critical success, winning nine Goya Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor.

You can find more detailed reviews and production details on the Festival Premiers Plans page or read critical analysis from DMovies.

The boundary between man and beast is not drawn in the dirt. It is drawn in the silence that follows a slammed door.

Antoine had lived in the stone house for seven years. He was not a local; he was a francés, a Parisian who had traded the Seine for the steep, unforgiving slopes of the Salvanés valley. His wife, Olga, said he had become more Galician than the Galicians. He spoke the language with a rusty accent, repaired his own roof, and refused to sell a single centimeter of his land to the wind consortium.

That was the sin. The unpardonable one.

The turbines were to be planted on the hill known as A Besta—The Beast. For the villagers, the turbines meant salvation: a payout, a future for their children who had all fled to Vigo or Madrid. For Antoine, they meant the death of the wild, the industrial scar on the last breathing lung of the mountain.

And so, the war began.

Xan and Lorenzo were brothers. Not young, not old. Farmers with hands like cracked leather and eyes that had learned to look away. They did not hate Antoine because he was French. They hated him because he had said “no” in a town where silence was the only currency of survival. He had stood in the concello and called the wind project a “rape of the earth.” The developer had left. The checks had vanished.

Now, the village looked at the brothers. And the brothers looked at Antoine.

The first acts were small. A missing fence post. Slashed tires. A dead dog—not poisoned, but found with its neck twisted, left at the edge of the property line like a warning written in fur.

Olga begged him to go to the Guardia Civil. Antoine, stubborn as the granite beneath their feet, refused. “If we run, they win,” he said. He installed cameras. He bought a shotgun.

But the true beast was not the mountain. It was the slow, grinding erosion of the human heart.

One night, Xan and Lorenzo came down from A Besta after drinking orujo. They were not masked. They did not need to be. In that valley, a face is not evidence; it is a verdict. They found Antoine mending a stone wall by flashlight.

The conversation, if it could be called that, was a masterpiece of Sorogoyen’s merciless eye. It was not a shout. It was a whisper that curdled.

“You think you are one of us?” Xan asked, spitting into the dirt. “You are a pet. And we put down pets that bite the hand.”

Antoine stood, his flashlight trembling. “The turbines are dead. Go home.”

Lorenzo did not speak. He simply picked up a fence post—the one Antoine had just repaired—and hefted it.

What followed was not a fight. It was a threshing. The camera, if one were watching, would not cut away. It would hold on the mud, the blood, the terrible intimacy of a man’s breath turning to rattle. The valley listened. The owls did not hoot. The wind, the real wind, did not howl. It held its breath.

When it was over, Xan and Lorenzo stood above the shape that had been their neighbor. They did not look at each other. They looked at the house. In the window, a candle flickered. Olga had seen everything.

They did not run. They walked back up the hill, into the mist, into the waiting dark of A Besta. Because a beast does not flee its own shadow.

The Guardia Civil came at dawn. Olga, hollow-eyed, gave her statement. The brothers were arrested in their own kitchen, sitting at a table with two untouched bowls of caldo. No confession. No remorse. Just a question from Xan to the officer: “Did the foreigner finally learn to shut up?”

The story does not end there. Because As Bestas is not a mystery. It is a fable.

Months later, the wind consortium returned. With Antoine dead, his land fell into a legal labyrinth. The remaining heirs—a distant nephew in Lyon—signed the option papers. The turbines went up. They turn now, white and serene, on the hill called A Besta.

And every night, Olga walks to the edge of the property. She does not look at the turbines. She looks at the empty house of Xan and Lorenzo, now padlocked, its roof caved in. She looks at the mountain where her husband’s blood soaked the same earth as the brothers’ ancestors.

She understands now that the real beast was never the wind. It was the love of a place so fierce that it consumes everything else. It was the refusal to bend. It was the silence of a village that saw everything and chose the hill over the man.

She turns her back on the valley, walks inside, and locks the door. But the lock is for herself. Because the beast is not outside. It is in the memory of a single, unspeakable night when men became animals, and the mountain said nothing at all.

As Bestas: Exploring the Primal Tensions of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Rural Thriller (The Beasts), director Rodrigo Sorogoyen

delivers a masterclass in slow-burn psychological tension, transforming a quiet corner of rural Galicia into a theater of primal conflict

. Inspired by a tragic true story, the film follows Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs), a middle-aged French couple who moved to the Spanish countryside to run an organic farm. Their dreams of a simpler life are shattered when they clash with local brothers Xan and Lorenzo over a wind turbine development that the locals see as their only escape from poverty. A Tale of Two Halves

The film is famously divided into two distinct tonal halves: The Western First Half: Released in 2022, As Bestas (international title: The

Sorogoyen utilizes classic Western tropes—static cameras, wide landscapes, and a "saloon-like" local bar—to establish a "solid, rough" masculine viewpoint. This section focuses on the escalating, machismo-fueled hostility between Antoine and his neighbors. The Meditative Second Half:

The perspective shifts to Olga, and the filmmaking style transforms. Swapping tripods for Steadicams, the camera adopts a lighter, more intimate touch to explore themes of grief, fortitude, and feminine resilience. The Symbolism of the "Beasts" The title refers to the Rapa das Bestas

, a Galician tradition where villagers wrestle wild horses to shear their manes. This ritual serves as a haunting opening sequence and a recurring allegory for the "domination via violence" that permeates the film’s central conflict. It questions whether humans, despite our masks of civility, are ever truly better than the animals we seek to tame. Critical Acclaim and Awards

has been universally lauded for its raw intensity and performances, particularly from Luis Zahera as the menacing Xan. It dominated the 37th Goya Awards , winning nine categories including:

Film Review — As Bestas (The Beasts) | Simon Dillon Cinema

A feud develops between a middle-aged French couple and local Spanish farmers in Rodrigo Sorogoyen's riveting drama. Simon Dillon. Simon Dillon 'The Beasts': Rodrigo Sorogoyen Opens Up at San Sebastian

Directed and co-written by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, (internationally released as The Beasts) is a 2022 psychological thriller set in the rural Galician countryside. The story centers on a middle-aged French couple, Antoine and Olga, who have moved to a small, depopulated village to practice sustainable farming and restore abandoned homes. The Core Conflict

The couple's peaceful life is shattered by a bitter dispute with their neighbors, the Anta brothers (Xan and Lorenzo).

The Trigger: A Norwegian company offers to buy the villagers' land to build a wind farm.

The Divide: While the local brothers see the payout as their only chance to escape a life of grueling toil, Antoine and Olga vote against the project to protect the environment.

Escalation: This disagreement ignites a campaign of xenophobic harassment and sabotage by the brothers, leading to a "point of no return" marked by psychological and physical violence. Narrative Structure The film is noted for a significant mid-point shift:

First Act: Focuses on the brewing machismo and tension between Antoine and the brothers.

Second Act: Following a tragic event, the perspective shifts to Olga, highlighting her quiet resilience and determination to stay despite the hostility and her daughter's pleas to leave.

As Bestas (The Beasts), directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, is a 2022 psychological thriller that explores the violent collision between rural tradition and modern ideals in the remote mountains of Galicia, Spain.

The film follows Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs), a French couple who move to a small Galician village to practice organic farming and restore abandoned houses. Their presence sparks a simmering, xenophobic hostility from two local brothers, Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido), who are desperate to sell their land to a wind energy developer—a deal that requires unanimous village consent, which Antoine refuses to give. Key Themes and Analysis

The Conflict of "Progress": The narrative centers on the controversial implementation of renewable energies in the Spanish rural landscape, where wind turbines are viewed by locals as a financial lifeline and by the French "outsiders" as an ecological threat.

Xenophobia and Class: The tension is fueled by a "law of the jungle" dynamic, where the brothers view Antoine’s refusal as a luxury of the wealthy, while they remain trapped in systemic poverty.

Gender and Resilience: The film's structure shifts significantly in its second half, transitioning from a male-dominated thriller to a story of quiet, persistent female resilience as Olga continues their mission despite mounting tragedy.

Ecological Cinema: Critics categorize the film alongside others like Alcarràs as part of a new wave of Spanish environmental cinema that moves beyond "beautifying" nature to address complex sociopolitical conflicts over land exploitation. Critical Reception and Awards

Goya Awards: The film dominated the 37th Goya Awards, winning nine categories, including Best Film, Best Director (Sorogoyen), and Best Actor (Ménochet).

César Awards: It won the César Award for Best Foreign Film in France.

Performances: Luis Zahera’s portrayal of Xan is widely cited as a standout performance, capturing a terrifyingly grounded brand of rural menace.

The film is noted for its high-tension "modern noir" style, particularly in scenes like the bar confrontations and the harrowing climax in the woods. My 2023: A Year Interrupted | Nobody Knows Anybody Critics praised it as "a rural western," "Hitchcockian