Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #91. Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s As Bestas

As Bestas

Spanish helmer Rodrigo Sorogoyen has been shooting up the charts with multiple projects for just over the past decade. Best known to international audiences for Mother – a project that began as a nominated short film for the Academy Awards and would then be elongated into the feature (Madre) which would be selected for Venice’s Orizzonti section in 2019. With filming having just concluded during the holidays, As Bestas is based on a true story co-written alongside frequent collab person Isabel Peña and which stars Denis Menochet, Marina Foïs, Luis Zahera and Diego Anido. Filmed in Galicia, Spain in two parts (to depict a timeline in two seasons), the Funny Games sounding thriller brings out the beast in people and that the filmmaker will shoot as a Western. Le Pacte’s Jean Labadie (read our profile) and Anne-Laure Labadie are among the producers. Sorogoyen reteams with his regular cinematographer Alex de Pablo.

Gist: This is about a middle-aged French couple (Denis Menochet, Marina Foïs) who arrive to live in a local village, seeking greater closeness to nature. Their presence, however, inflames two locals, brothers Xan and Lorenzo, to the point of outright hostility and then shocking violence.

Release Date/Prediction: The production is aiming for a May release which means (maybe an Un Certain Regard or Directors’ Fortnight) but I’m thinking that this might bow in Venice – where his last film premiered. Donostia San Sebastian would also be in the cards.