As Bestas Rodrigo Sorogoyen -

Sorogoyen avoids easy binaries. The locals are not mere villains; they are impoverished, abandoned by the state, and see the wind turbines as their only retirement plan. The French couple, while sympathetic, represents a post-materialist privilege that the locals cannot afford. The conflict is not just about land—it is about two incompatible worldviews: subsistence vs. survival, ecology vs. economy.

"As Bestas" (The Beasts) is a Spanish-French thriller film written and directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen. The movie stars Manolo Cardona, Antonio Velázquez, and María León.

: The film is a brutal deconstruction of the romanticized dream of escaping the city for a simple life in the countryside. For Antoine and Olga, Galicia is a sanctuary. For Xan and Lorenzo, it's a harsh existence, a place of dwindling opportunity. The conflict is a clash between an idealized, "tourist" vision of rural life and the gritty, complicated reality of the locals who struggle there.

Antoine stood, his flashlight trembling. “The turbines are dead. Go home.” as bestas rodrigo sorogoyen

If you are researching you are likely deciding whether to commit two hours and seventeen minutes to a slow-burn foreign thriller. Here is why you should:

The story does not end there. Because As Bestas is not a mystery. It is a fable.

The Galician countryside is portrayed not as a pastoral idyll, but as a claustrophobic, rugged landscape that feels disconnected from modern law and morality. Sorogoyen avoids easy binaries

And so, the war began.

And every night, Olga walks to the edge of the property. She does not look at the turbines. She looks at the empty house of Xan and Lorenzo, now padlocked, its roof caved in. She looks at the mountain where her husband’s blood soaked the same earth as the brothers’ ancestors.

Released in 2022 and dominating the Spanish film scene, (The Beasts) is a visceral thriller that solidified Rodrigo Sorogoyen as one of Europe's premier directors. Based loosely on a true story, the film is a masterclass in tension, exploring the violent intersection of rural traditionalism, foreign idealism, and the decay of modern society. The conflict is not just about land—it is

The film follows Antoine and Olga (played by Denis Ménochet and Marina Foïs), a middle-aged French couple who have settled in a remote village in Galicia, Spain, to pursue organic farming and restore abandoned houses. Their idealistic "back-to-the-land" dream curdles into a nightmare when they oppose a wind farm project that promised life-changing payouts to the impoverished locals.

Critics worldwide praised the film for its relentless pacing, thematic depth, and refusal to offer clean Hollywood resolutions. It stands as a landmark achievement in contemporary European thriller cinema, proving that the most terrifying monsters are not supernatural entities, but the neighbors living right next door.

(2022), directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen , is a masterful rural thriller that explores the terrifying heights of xenophobia and neighborly conflict in a remote Galician village. Co-written with his longtime collaborator Isabel Peña

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:

, a Galician tradition where villagers wrestle wild horses to shear their manes. This ritual serves as a haunting opening sequence and a recurring allegory for the "domination via violence" that permeates the film’s central conflict. It questions whether humans, despite our masks of civility, are ever truly better than the animals we seek to tame. Critical Acclaim and Awards