A French organic farming couple doesn’t want to sell their land to a wind turbine eco-company, incurring the wrath of the Spanish locals, as Sorogoyen’s slow-burning thriller reveals the psychological pressures of intimidation and violence.
Review #3,024
Dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen
2022 | Spain, France | Drama, Thriller | 137min | 2.39:1 | Galician, French & Spanish
NC16 (passed clean) for some violence and nudity
Cast: Marina Fois, Denis Menochet, Luis Zahera, Diego Anido, Marie Colomb
Plot: Antoine and Olga, a French couple, have been living in a small village in Galicia for a long time. They practice eco-responsible agriculture and restore abandoned houses to facilitate repopulation. Everything should be idyllic, but for their opposition to a wind turbine project that creates a serious conflict with their neighbours.
Awards: Official Selection (Cannes)
International Sales: Latido Films
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Countryside Life; Psychological Warfare; Violence & Intimidation
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: Screener (as part of Perspectives Film Festival 2025)
Spoilers: No
Not to be confused with Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast (2023), this Spanish-French co-production boasts strong, nuanced performances by the cast, which include Denis Menochet, Marina Fois and Luis Zahera.
Zahera’s Xan and his younger brother are hostile towards an expatriate French couple who become their neighbours, plying their trade as organic farmers.
Refusing to sell off their part of the land to a ‘capitalistic’ wind turbine eco-company, their dissenting vote incurs the wrath of Xan’s family, who have been in this part of the world for generations.
With the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get paid a handsome amount of money—one that might change the destiny of these poor villagers—becoming more and more elusive, things escalate to the point of no return.
The ‘beasts’ that stay hidden in this Spanish countryside threaten to burst out in brutal, animalistic fashion.
“Those people don’t like you. They don’t like people like us.”
With a steady hand, and some impressive use of minimalist, brooding percussive music, director Rodrigo Sorogoyen fashions a slow-burning thriller that builds up the suspense one sequence after another.
And when you think it’s over after a dramatic high point, he pulls the rug from under our feet and rebuilds the tension.
Come to think of it, it isn’t easy to sustain this level of tension with a rather unorthodox narrative structure, and perhaps this is why the film has grown in reputation with audiences who are seeking out a moderately accessible European film that is not too arthouse or mainstream.
Sorogoyen also plays with gender codes, albeit more pronouncedly in the final act. Men are aggressive creatures and cannot tolerate ‘bullies’ that threaten their way of life or ego; women will stand their ground, refusing to be intimidated when the occasion calls for it.
Fight, not flight, Sorogoyen seems to assert with The Beasts. Fight with psychological might and be patient.
Grade: B+
Trailer:
Eternality Tan 
Yes, I saw that a year or so ago and still remember it fondly. A bit slow paced, but engrossing, I´d also rate it B+ or say 7,5-8/10.
There are some pretty good Spanish movies, one of the is called – I think – something with or exactly THE MARSHLANDS from some 10 or so years ago, which left quite an impression on me. A serial killer movie much much better than most of that kind, which I´d rate even 9/10.
Some more, I´ll try to remmeber the names and get back to you, IF you want. Spanish cinema is definitly worth exploring, they made some FANTASTIC movies already in the 50ies, 60ies and so on, and I don´t just mean Bunuel. 🙂
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Thanks for sharing! If you have the time, you can maybe share 5-10 titles or more if you want to. I could already have seen some, outside of Bunuel, but would love to hear what you are looking at
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This is just a random list of Spanish movies I saw in the last 5+ years and which left a HUGE impression on me. Each is definitly worth seeing. Obviously my taste is (neo) noir, horror, thriller, (melo)drama, home invasion and stuff like that. I saw many more Spanish movies, so the list is not complete (bec. I can´t remember some titles I saw, which I wanted to include), so more MIGHT follow, esp. from the 70ies). So here we go:
MARSHLAND (2014)
Grupo 7 (2012)
El cuerpo (2012)
Contratiempo (2016)
La caja 507 (2002)
Mientras duermes (2011)
Cela 2011 (2009)
Tambien la iluvia (2010)
Calle Mayor (1956)
El ultimo caballo (1950)
Los desafios (1969)
La caza (1969)
Los inocentes (1963)
Esa Pareja Feliz (1953)
La tia tula (1964)
KIDNAPPED (Secuestrados, 2010)
THE UNIVENTED GUEST (El habitante incierto, 2004)
La noche avanza (1952. Mexico) and LA OTRA (Mexico 1946) – masterpieces, both!
Some of these are extremely hard to find, but I take it that you know rarefilmm.com. If you don´t, you can spend the next +2 years there, that´s how many nuggest there are.
Now that you know my taste, roughly at least, I´d be DELIGHTED if you can recommend some movies of that kind/quality/intelligence/freshness/resourcefulness, which I might not be aware of. Don´t limit yourself to any country, I just watch movies from everywhere, every country, every period, black and white, colour, whatever.
The only thing I can´t accept is boredom: a movie must not be perfect, but it may never bore the viewer.
Cheers!
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I don’t really know any rare films that you seem to already know. As a programmer, I need to prioritise my time so I’m naturally more into new restorations (famous films or more obscure ones). So could be anything from the Lumet all-black cast musical THE WIZ to Sri Lankan arthouse classic THE WASPS ARE HERE. Or new titles from the festival circuits to get cinephiles back to the cinemas, which is difficult. The struggle is real…
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PS: you might wanna check out the following 2 directors: Juan Antonio Bardem (yes, a relative!) and Roberto and Roberto Gavaldon … I´d not be surprised if you never heard about them. 🙂 Seems hardly anyone remembers them.
PPS: How many of the above movies did you already know?
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I’ll probably need some time to do a check, particularly translating to English. But a few of them seem familiar based on the Spanish titles alone. Probably because I had listened to the OST in some form or another. In any case, thanks for the recs. And the link – first time hearing of it!
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No hurry at all! Take your time and watch as many of them as you can. You won´t regret it. And I am happy I told you about a site you didn´t yet know. I guess I watched a lower 3-digit-number of movies on rarefilmm.com over the last +5 years, which I´d not heard about anywhere and which I´d never seen otherwise (the old ones in the above list, the newer ones are easy to get ahold of).
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Just realised Tambien la iluvia (2010) has been in my longlist for a long time, partly because I love Alberto Iglesias, one of my all-time favourite film composers.
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You are into soundtracks? WOW !! I collect OSTs on vinyl and CDs since 1986 !!! I have amassed a collection of 15.000+ items, half records on all formats, half CDs. If you need any info, just ask.
I am surprised you refer to soundtracks – or maybe I mis-understand you ? – of Spanish movies from the 60ies (or do you mean newer ones?), which – to my vast knowledge – have never been issued on any format. Of course I know and have OSTs by Alberto Iglesias (on the Spanish QUARTET-label, mainly), but the old movies never had any OST-release.
IF you know about obscure OST-releases I might not be aware of, please share your knowledge!! I am constantly looking for OSTs I don´t know/have yet. :-))
Good luck diggin´!
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I get what you mean about the older stuff. I think the older stuff it’s more of randomly chanced upon on YouTube over the years. Soundtracks are a way for me to be introduced to films I might not even know, especially cult or under-the-radar or outside of the ‘canon’ stuff. You might have already heard of this channel, but it’s my favourite out of many channels that do OST suites: https://www.youtube.com/@GillesNuytens . Good to know a fellow collector – I’m also a physical media fan, vinyls and cassette tapes last time, now mostly CDs and Blu-rays.
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