Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Antoine and Olga, a French couple, have been living in a small village in Galicia for a long time. They practice eco-responsible agriculture and restore abandoned houses to facilitate repopulation. Everything should be idyllic except for their opposition to a wind turbine project that creates a serious conflict with their neighbors. The tension will rise to the point of irreparability.
The Beasts is a slow-burn rural thriller of genuine distinction. The plot is tightly wound and morally complex, exploring xenophobia, stubbornness, and community violence with uncomfortable authenticity — the escalation feels inevitable yet surprising. Denis Ménochet delivers a towering, physically imposing performance, and the supporting cast of Galician locals lends the film an almost documentary texture of menace. Cinematography is exceptional: the lush, fog-draped Galician landscape is used expressively, contrasting pastoral beauty with creeping dread. The novelty is solid but not exceptional — the conflict-with-locals premise has precedents, though the Franco-Spanish cultural friction and the film's unflinching patience give it a distinct identity. The ending is deliberately unsatisfying in a way that feels true to life but somewhat airless, landing the film in ambiguity that some will find powerful and others frustrating — it earns its bleakness but not quite its full emotional resolution.