As Bestas | Rodrigo Sorogoyen

The "beasts" of the title are also literal. The film features graphic scenes of horse slaughter and livestock dismemberment, grounding the violence in the visceral reality of farm life. There is no stylized Tarantino blood here; there is only the sickening crunch of bone and the cold practicality of a bolt gun. Just when you think As Bestas is a simple "city vs. country" revenge thriller, Sorogoyen executes a brilliant tonal shift in the final forty minutes. After the central act of violence (which will not be spoiled here), the narrative focus moves from Antoine to his wife, Olga.

As Bestas asks a brutal question: If someone is starving, how much moral authority does a well-fed person have to tell them they cannot eat? as bestas rodrigo sorogoyen

On the surface, it is Xan and Lorenzo. Luis Zahera delivers a volcanic, Goya-winning performance as Xan—a man so poisoned by resentment that his face twitches with barely contained rage. He is not a cartoon villain. He is a product of a dying rural economy who sees a foreigner dictating the terms of his survival. When Xan snarls, "You don’t know what hunger is," he reveals the wound: the urban elite preserving nature for their own aesthetic pleasure while rural communities starve. The "beasts" of the title are also literal

A lucrative deal is on the table. The villagers, struggling with depopulation and an aging demographic, stand to make millions by leasing their land for industrial wind turbines. But Antoine and Olga’s plot is a strategic bottleneck. Without their signature, the entire project collapses. Just when you think As Bestas is a simple "city vs

Sorogoyen is a master of the long take. The film’s infamous ten-minute argument at the village bar plays out in a single, stifling wide shot. We are forced to watch Antoine’s humiliation in real-time, unable to look away as the community’s passive aggression curdles into direct threat. Later, a nighttime chase through a cornfield utilizes disorienting POV shots, turning the familiar rural landscape into a labyrinth.