The Beasts is not an "easy" watch. It is uncomfortable, frustrating, and at times, bleak. But it is essential viewing for anyone who appreciates cinema that trusts its audience.

The setting is not just a backdrop; it is a character. The Galician forests are beautiful but trapping. The mud, the rain, and the overgrowth mirror the characters' entrapment in their own grudges and stubbornness. The title As Bestas (The Beasts) suggests that, under the right pressures, civility is a thin veneer and humans can revert to animalistic behavior.

Their presence is an affront to the Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido), two brothers who have lived in the village their entire lives. The catalyst for the conflict is a proposed wind farm: the French couple refuses to sign the agreement, blocking the payout the impoverished locals desperately need to escape their hardscrabble existence. Sorogoyen’s Mastery of Atmosphere