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The Unrelenting Tension of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s As Bestas In the landscape of contemporary Spanish cinema, few filmmakers command the mechanics of tension as masterfully as Rodrigo Sorogoyen. With his 2022 powerhouse As Bestas (The Beasts), Sorogoyen transitioned from the urban thrillers that made his name—such as Que Dios nos perdone and El Reino—into the rugged, unforgiving terrain of rural Galicia.
The result is a psychological thriller that functions as a modern-day Western, exploring the explosive intersection of xenophobia, class warfare, and the grueling reality of rural life. The Premise: A Conflict of Ideals
Inspired by true events (the real-life "Santoalla" case), As Bestas follows Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs), a French couple who have moved to a decaying Galician village to practice sustainable farming and restore abandoned houses.
Their presence is an affront to the Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido), two brothers who have lived in the village their entire lives. The catalyst for the conflict is a proposed wind farm: the French couple refuses to sign the agreement, blocking the payout the impoverished locals desperately need to escape their hardscrabble existence. Sorogoyen’s Mastery of Atmosphere
What sets As Bestas apart is Sorogoyen’s refusal to rely on cheap jump scares or melodramatic tropes. Instead, he builds a "slow-burn" dread through:
Lingering Long Takes: The camera often stays stationary, forcing the audience to endure uncomfortable conversations in real-time. A standout scene in a local bar features a circular argument that feels like a physical assault.
The Landscape as a Character: The Galician mountains are beautiful but claustrophobic. Sorogoyen and cinematographer Alex de Pablo use the mist and the jagged terrain to isolate the protagonists, making the vast outdoors feel as tight as a prison cell.
A Shift in Perspective: In a daring narrative move, the film’s final act shifts focus significantly, moving from a traditional masculine confrontation to a story of quiet, female resilience. Powerhouse Performances
The film’s success rests heavily on its cast. Denis Ménochet provides a soulful, simmering performance as a man trying to maintain his dignity while being slowly hunted. However, it is Luis Zahera who steals the film. As Xan, Zahera embodies a terrifying, grounded villainy—a man driven not by pure evil, but by a lifetime of resentment and the "intellectual" condescension he feels from his foreign neighbors. Themes: Intellectualism vs. Survival as bestas rodrigo sorogoyen
At its core, As Bestas is a critique of "green colonialism" and the gap between urban idealism and rural necessity. Antoine and Olga see the village as a project; Xan and Lorenzo see it as a tomb. Sorogoyen doesn't paint the locals as simple monsters; he illustrates how poverty and lack of opportunity can turn neighbors into "beasts." Critical Reception and Awards
As Bestas dominated the 37th Goya Awards, winning nine categories, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor. It also received widespread international acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival, cementing Sorogoyen’s status as one of Europe’s premier directors. Conclusion
As Bestas is more than a thriller; it is a haunting meditation on what it means to belong to a land. It is a grueling, essential piece of cinema that lingers in the mind long after the final frame. For fans of high-stakes drama and meticulous filmmaking, Rodrigo Sorogoyen has delivered a definitive masterpiece of the decade.
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: The Unrelenting Tension of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s As Bestas
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.
At its heart, The Beasts is a film about the crisis of masculinity.
Antoine (Denis Ménochet) is a physically imposing man, yet he attempts to solve problems through dialogue, patience, and legal channels. Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido) represent a toxic, fading form of machismo—insecure, uneducated, and prone to aggression when they feel their authority slipping away.
The brilliance of the script is that it doesn’t paint the brothers as cartoon villains. We see glimpses of their economic desperation and their feeling of being left behind by modern society. They are "the beasts" of the title, yes, but beasts that feel cornered.
Luis Zahera’s performance as Xan is particularly chilling. He won a Goya for this role, and for good reason: he oscillates between pathetic drunkenness and terrifying volatility in the blink of an eye.
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. The Battle of Masculinities At its heart, The
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.
As Bestas opens with an almost documentary-like tranquility. We are introduced to Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs), a French couple who have moved to a remote, depopulated village in Galicia, Spain. They are idealists. They have restored a dilapidated stone house, planted organic crops, and are working to repurpose abandoned local land for renewable energy.
On the surface, they are living the dream of a return to nature. But the locals see them differently: as invaders.
The conflict is immediate and economic. A Chinese wind power company is paying villagers for access to their land. The brothers Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido)—known locally as "the beasts"—are the gatekeepers of the village. They have agreed to sell their plots, making a substantial profit. Antoine, however, refuses to sell the plot that sits between the brothers’ land and the proposed turbine site. Without his signature, the deal collapses.
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 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.
Rodrigo Sorogoyen, working with his regular cinematographer Álex de Pablo, crafts a film of extraordinary formal control.