By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

The Beasts (Dir: Rodrigo Sorogoyen. Spain, 2022): After telling a Spanish friend in passing about my dream of buying a summer house in the Iberian Peninsula, his only comment was “do you have twenty bucks?” It was his way of saying acquiring property isn’t a problem per se, but there are issues that come with buying cheap.

Watching The Beasts reinforced his point. A superb thriller winner of last year’s Goya for Best Picture, the issues the film trades on (bigotry, gentrification, social stagnation) are all so palpable, they make the story hit harder.

Hoping to have a go at living off the land, a French couple —Olga and Antoine (Marina Fois and Denis Menochet)— buy a farm in Galicia. Any hope for a quiet existence goes down the drain when they find themselves at odds with the townies, particularly the Anta brothers (Luis Zahera and Diego Anido), over selling the land to a wind energy conglomerate. Olga and Antoine are the only holdouts.

The hostilities between the neighbors escalate. For the Anta siblings, the offer is their best shot to escape poverty and the French couple is on the way. You just know the dispute won’t end well.

Director Rodrigo Sorogoyen does a masterful job at escalation and foreshadowing, aided by extraordinary performances by Denis Menochet (Monsieur LaPadite in Inglourious Basterds) and Luis Zahera. We’re meant to sympathize with Olga and Antoine, but Sorogoyen refuses to dismiss the townies’ grievances. There are no bigger tragedies than the ones caused by villains who think of themselves as crusaders. A must see. 4/5 stars.

The Beasts is now playing in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Hamilton, Sudbury, Vancouver, Waterloo, and Windsor.