The Reel Review
A land dispute pits a French couple against their neighbors in a farming village in the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain. As the tension builds between the more environmentally conscious newcomers and their uneducated neighbors who see life there as a dreary dead end, bloodshed becomes inevitable, in this psychological thriller based on a true story.
The decaying, decrepit village plays a huge part in setting the bleak tone of this film, symbolizing the decay of hope for a better life for its long-term residents. They are bitter that the French couple’s refusal to participate in a big buyout of property by an interested windmill company has scuttled the deal for all of them.
Performances, in particular the main protagonists played by Denis Ménochet (Beau is Afraid, Inglorious Basterds) and Marina Fois (Polisse), are gripping. The tension builds, culminating in a somewhat predictable outcome, but even so, it is quite a stomach-churning ride getting there, especially knowing that co-writer/director Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s story accurately mirrors real-life events.
REEL FACTS
• The Beasts is based on the true story of Dutch farmers Margo Pool and Martin Verondern, who got into a heated dispute with their only neighbors in their stretch of Galicia – the Rodrigueses, an elderly couple and their two adult sons, one of whom was mentally challenged. The 2017 documentary Santoalla is their story.
• The Beasts won nine Goya awards in 2022, including Best Picture.
• Although set in Galicia, most of The Beasts was filmed in a couple of towns in the neighboring province of Leon.
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