As bestas | One of the best films of the year!

Outside the Spanish-speaking world, Rodrigo Sorogoyen was not yet well known, although one of his feature films, el reinoobtained some radiation five years ago, and that Madremade the previous year, was nominated for an Oscar in the category of best short film. As bestaslaunched last year at the Cannes Film Festival (in the Cannes Première section), has of course changed the situation.

Winner of nine Goya trophies (the Spanish Oscars), this powerful psychological thriller has also achieved great public success in France, as well as, very recently, the César for best foreign film there.

Even before the appearance of the first image, we are told about an ancestral technique practiced in Galicia by the aloitadores, a kind of horse trainers who engage in a kind of hand-to-hand combat with the animals. Then we are shown in slow motion. This demonstration, we will understand later, has nothing fortuitous about it.

Marina Foïs and Denis Ménochet are a French couple who have come to settle in a small arid village in Galicia, Spain, not far from the Portuguese border. They operate a vegetable garden in which grow organic vegetables, which they sell at the local market. They found the hope of eventually attracting tourists by renovating very old abandoned buildings, just to restore some vitality to the village. By refusing on principle to sign an agreement allowing the installation of wind turbines in the area, Antoine and Olga however raise the ire of their immediate neighbors.

More than just a genre film

Xan (Luis Zahera) and his younger brother Lorenzo (Diego Anido), who were counting on the money they would have been given in compensation to finally leave this village and make a better life elsewhere, do everything they can to poison the existence of the French couple. Psychological harassment, cruel jokes, sabotage operations and direct confrontations are on the menu. Without forgetting this xenophobia expressed without any embarrassment, which constantly pollutes the atmosphere. But where a less inspired filmmaker could have been satisfied with this starting point to simply offer a good genre film, Rodrigo Sorogoyen digs deeper.

With a remarkable sense of direction, the director, who was inspired by a real news item to write the screenplay with Isabel Peña, his usual collaborator, illustrates the implacable mechanics of an irrational escalation.

As if decades of repressed anger towards those who believed themselves to be allowed everything in the region suddenly crystallized towards this couple from abroad who, moreover, do nothing like everyone else.

First focused on the character played – brilliantly as always – by Denis Ménochet, the story then turns to Olga and the other women involved in this story. Marina Foïs delivers here a great performance, of which we retain both the dry side, as well as this way of dealing with a world in which she will never be able to really integrate. Even if they alert the authorities to try to put an end to the harassment to which they are subjected, Antoine and Olga also know very well which side the benevolence of the police will lean on. If the French actors, who often play in Spanish, stand out strongly, let’s also underline the strong presence of Luis Zahera, impeccable in the role of the neighbor having the impression that the carpet is being stolen from under his feet.

Until the very end, Rodrigo Sorogoyen maintains his feature film under high tension, both in terms of suspense and in the relationships between the characters. The arrival of Marie (Marie Colomb), daughter of Antoine and Olga, will also relaunch the story towards other, more intimately family themes.

Without a doubt, As bestas is one of the strongest movies you’ll see this year.

Indoors

Thriller

As bestas

Rodrigo Sorogoyen

With Marina Fois, Denis Menochet, Luis Zahera

2:17 a.m.

8.5/10