‘The Beasts’ Review: A Disturbing Look at a Deadlock Between Neighbors in Lawless Galicia
28.07.2023 - 07:35
/ variety.com
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Fiftysomething French couple Antoine and his wife Olga move to Galicia looking for a fresh start. Instead, they find only hostility and hardship in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” a deeply uncomfortable portrait of everyday evil that’s all the more terrifying for being true — not the two main characters, who are fictional, but the conflict that comes to define their new life in that wild corner of northwest Spain.
Antoine (played by Denis Ménochet, a sturdy bear-like man with a James Gandolfini-esque screen presence) buys a modest plot on a primeval slope, fixing up the crumbling stone cottage into something cozy enough to call home. He and Olga (Marina Foïs, who is billed first, but takes her time to emerge as the film’s main character) are fully prepared to face the challenges of raising crops on such unforgiving soil.
What they’re not prepared for is the open resentment of their xenophobic neighbors, 52-year-old Xan (Luis Zahera) and his brother, Loren (Diego Anido), who was kicked in the head by a horse at some point and has the jagged scar and blank stare to show for it. These two have lived in the same spot all their lives and don’t take kindly to outsiders coming in and changing things.
Or not changing them, as the case may be, since Antoine casts a deciding vote that prevents wind turbines from being installed, blocking the poor brothers from an easy payday. The movie opens with slow-motion footage of a local tradition, called “A rapa das bestas,” in which rugged men grapple with wild horses, wrestling them long enough to trim their manes before turning the animals loose again.
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