The Beasts (2022)

The-Beasts-(2023)
The Beasts (2023)

Even though ‘The Beasts’ is a Spanish Cinema true crime thriller, it at first appears to be a tragic tale of an outsider group fighting with their Galician neighbors. This dispute seems to be inspired by the Dutch couple – Margo and Martin Verfondern – who fought over farming land near their house.

Seeking revenge, Loren (Diego Anido) and Xan (Luis Zahera) were paying attention only to the fact that their land was being purchased by a wind turbine organization. Because of this, Olga and Antoine (Marina Foïs and Denis Ménochet) were non-natives which made them anxious. To resolve the repetitive conflict, Xan needs to stop filming antagonistic videos while his brother covers up for the peace-loving Antoine. This brings yet another layer to the matter because both of the brothers have an aggressive nature. One of the brothers who happens to be Antoine’s fiercest enemy has an unexplainable blind hatred for him while on the other hand, none of their fellow countrymen wish to give up on the land they own.

Fortunately, Sorogoyen’s decision to continually put his attention towards the emotional faceoff between Antoine and Xan rather than trying to disguise the body fighting with another bimbo genre movie image stands out.

In ‘The Beasts’, the mood is placed over morality and this is complemented by Sorogoyen’s work alongside the art director, sound designer Fabiola Ordoyo, and cinematographer Alejandro de Pablo. For them, what mattered was the dying air and the dead leaves that enveloped the empty Castilian town of Quinela de Barjas, which is 35 minutes away from the nearest populated city.

The characters seem to be engaged in endless futile arguments as half-suffocation adds to the already deep feeling of hostility against the characters of the film. This never-ending attempt to place blame serves to only set the characters further apart. Sorogoyen’s work is praised due to its ability to greatly transform the setting of the location shot, and The Beasts is no exception. Thanks to the barren beauty of the town, the target does not have to work very hard on spotting what is appealing to the eye.

Sorogoyen was right to underline both in the film and the interview for the press notes that the film “The Beasts” makes use of real-life instances only in a tangential manner. While the grievances that define both Antoine and Xan can be very topical, both characters are not very compelling. Instead, what is shocking in the movie is the vision of reality which is crafted with style and zeal by its developers. Most of the long takes delineate time in a very unembellished manner, while some interior scenes put the light in such a way that seems untouched and aids the audience in furthering their admiration for the imagery and sounds that Quinela de Barajas.

These rather unsophisticated elements of the film technique serve also to shift our focus to the claustrophobic silence that encapsulates Antoine and Xan. Sorogoyen’s characters constantly collide and even more often clash, with the burning fore assumption that the other will attempt to listen–which more often than not, seemingly be the case. Focused on the impervious haze that envelopes Antoine, Xan, and their respective mates, Sorogoyen changes the thrust of ‘The Beasts’ to the pathetic irrevocable certainty of his protagonist’s dispute to whatever it is that they claim to be opposing.

Fingers crossed that Zahera or Anido develops the strength to act professionally so that we can finally appreciate the commendable portrayals in “The Beasts.” More so the moving purpose of Sorogoyen and de Pablo’s camera gives the illusion that we’re either following Antoine and Xan or frantically trying to keep up with them. At one point, they do double back, and that, combined with the literal uphill promenade, makes it seem like they are waiting for all that they have readied themselves for, but don’t know exactly what. It illustrates the mind-numbing feeling I chase after, where you know something dreadfully frightening is awaiting you.

‘The Beasts’ also serves as a tale of neighbors who take turns looking at each other, fighting for an impossible miracle. They never get one but they sort of do and get no relief. Sorogoyen, who had written Good Manners along with Isabel Peña, splits his story into two parts of unequal volume. The second half shifts the plot from Antoine and focuses on Olga and Marie (Marie Colomb), the annoyed daughter. This brake of narrative is crucial but at the same time, the film is much more than the devastation that shrouds the dysfunction. Marie says, ‘Nobody cares about the truth’. She most certainly is correct. Just as Olga is when she tells Marie, ‘You don’t understand. Indeed, Marie has not been in Quinela de Barjas for an extended period because she has not breathed as much ‘deadly’ comforting air as her mother.

Sorogoyen and Peña may bring us and their characters to a deeply religious and uneventful ending, though I think the world Antoine and Xan inhabit is so interesting that I find it quite hard to care. The noxious fumes that surround both of these individuals do not dissipate by the end of the movie they build up and suffocate everyone in the vicinity. As such, the fight between Antoine and Xan is much less about the turf or wounded pride, but rather more about the very perspective of the world while anticipating the worst. The worst is truly the most evident and upsetting which everyone anticipates so long as. ‘The Beasts,’ being not realistic at all is still fascinatingly frightening.

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