Interviews

Interview: Agustina San Martín – To Kill The Beast

Published on September 21, 2021

An already celebrated filmmaker (and cinematographer) on the fest circuit due to her short films that landed in Berlinale and Cannes, Matar a la bestia (To Kill the Beast) receives it world premiere launch at this year’s Toronto Intl. Film Festival. It’s a moody, atmospheric piece of cinema – a sensorial dive into a double search of sorts – peering into lost family and one’s identity. Argentinean filmmaker Agustina San Martín utilizes the gaze — generously creative degrees (think early Julio Medem).

A debut that explores the central young adult character through her relationships and set of fears, the text then takes hold of what is lurking out there in the woods – man or beast and tames it. I had the chance to sit down with the filmmaker in Toronto – only had the chance to touch upon some brief points — but there is a lot of matter in this film.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).