As Bestas Rodrigo Sorogoyen

The film is based on a true story that occurred in the Galician countryside in 2010. It follows Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs), a French couple who have abandoned city life to live as eco-friendly farmers in a small, depopulated village in inland Galicia. They restore an abandoned house, cultivate organic vegetables, and aim for self-sufficiency.

However, their presence ignites a brutal conflict with their neighbors, two local brothers—Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido)—who are deeply invested in selling their inherited land to a wind energy company. The proposed installation of massive wind turbines would make the brothers millionaires. Antoine, acting as the community's spokesperson, votes against the project at a town meeting, fearing the environmental destruction and the industrialization of the landscape. The deal collapses.

What follows is a masterclass in psychological warfare. The brothers begin a campaign of low-level intimidation that escalates into life-threatening aggression—vandalized crops, poisoned dogs, anonymous threats, and a suffocating atmosphere of silent hostility. The rest of the village, bound by family ties or fear, refuses to intervene. As Antoine’s stubborn idealism clashes with Xan’s brute force and Lorenzo’s cold cunning, the film spirals toward an inevitable, shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, Olga must navigate the hostile terrain alone, seeking justice in a place where the law has no real power. as bestas rodrigo sorogoyen

The title is deliberately slippery. Who are the beasts?

At first, we assume it refers to the brothers. Xan is a bull-necked nationalist who mocks Antoine’s French accent and accuses him of being a hypocrite. "You want to save the planet," Xan sneers, "but you don't want us to earn a living." Lorenzo, who speaks rarely, communicates through brute force, smashing a woodcutter’s tool into a wall during a community meeting. The film is based on a true story

But as the film grinds toward its horrific central event—the abduction and murder of Antoine—Sorogoyen flips the script. The real beast, he suggests, might be the land itself. Or perhaps the beast is the desperation of depopulated rural Europe. The villagers are not evil; they are starving. The young have left for the cities. The only currency left is land, and Antoine is a foreigner holding their lottery ticket hostage.

When Antoine disappears, the film morphs again. Olga becomes the protagonist, turning the story into a female-driven survival horror. Marina Foïs delivers a performance of steely, silent endurance. While the men solve problems with violence, Olga uses patience and strategy, wearing hidden microphones to record confessions, turning the isolated house into a surveillance nest. However, their presence ignites a brutal conflict with

As Bestas is not merely a thriller; it is a profound tragedy about the impossibility of coexistence when survival is at stake. Rodrigo Sorogoyen strips away romantic notions of countryside life to reveal the primal conflicts that simmer beneath the soil. By refusing to paint heroes or villains, he creates a mirror for contemporary tensions—between nations, classes, and ecologies. The final shot of Olga, standing alone in the muddy field as the villagers go about their business, is one of the most devastating endings in recent cinema. It asks a simple, haunting question: Who are the real beasts?

Recommended for: Fans of Straw Dogs (1971), The Hunting Ground (2015), Leviathan (2014), and anyone interested in slow-burn psychological horror rooted in social realism.