Rodrigo Sorogoyen: As Bestas

When Antoine disappears, the film morphs again. Olga becomes the protagonist, turning the story into a female-driven survival horror. Marina Foïs delivers a performance of steely, silent endurance. While the men solve problems with violence, Olga uses patience and strategy, wearing hidden microphones to record confessions, turning the isolated house into a surveillance nest. Rodrigo Sorogoyen does not shoot Galicia as a postcard. He shoots it as a labyrinth. Cinematographer Álex de Pablo uses wide shots that dwarf the human figures. The monte (the mountain bushland) is a character in itself—scratchy, flammable, and impenetrable. In the film’s most stunning sequence (the night of the murder), the camera stays static as the characters vanish into the thick fog. We hear the screams before we see the act. It is a return to classical Greek tragedy: the violence happens off-stage, but its echo is unbearable.

At first, we assume it refers to the brothers. Xan is a bull-necked nationalist who mocks Antoine’s French accent and accuses him of being a hypocrite. "You want to save the planet," Xan sneers, "but you don't want us to earn a living." Lorenzo, who speaks rarely, communicates through brute force, smashing a woodcutter’s tool into a wall during a community meeting. as bestas rodrigo sorogoyen

What follows is a masterclass in escalating tension. Sorogoyen, known for his kinetic thriller May God Save Us , here employs a slower, more oppressive rhythm. The first act is a catalogue of micro-aggressions: dirty looks in the bar, poisoned dogs, sabotaged fences. Xan and Lorenzo do not roar; they whisper threats. Luis Zahera’s Xan is a tornado of paranoid rage, while Diego Anido’s Lorenzo is a silent, hulking shadow—the physical id to Xan’s verbal ego. The title is deliberately slippery. Who are the beasts? When Antoine disappears, the film morphs again

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. While the men solve problems with violence, Olga