Deborah Ross

I never knew a game of dominoes could be so menacing: The Beasts reviewed

This slow, tense Spanish film is a merciless study of human nature

The bulk of Tony Soprano but with mournful eyes: Denis Ménochet as Antoine. Credit: © Lucia Faraig

The Beasts is a rural psychological thriller from Spain that has won many awards across Europe and even though we don’t set any store by awards – the multi-Oscar winning Everything Everywhere All At Once is known as Extremely Baffling As Well As Dull in this house – it is a riveting, merciless study of human nature, so cleverly tense throughout that even a game of dominoes becomes menacing. You didn’t know a game of dominoes could be menacing? Trust me, it can. You might never be able to look at a pack of dominoes again without feeling menaced.

Directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and co-written with Isabel Pena, the film is loosely based on a true story from 2014 involving a Dutch couple who moved to a small Spanish village in Galicia. But here the protagonists are reworked as French. They are Antoine (Denis Ménochet), who has the bulk of a Tony Soprano but with mournful eyes, and his wife Olga (Marina Foïs).

This is so cleverly tense throughout that even a game of dominoes becomes menacing

They settled here a few years back to enjoy a slower pace of life and grow organic vegetables to sell at market in the local town. The village itself appears semi-derelict and the few inhabitants who remain don’t seem well disposed towards the couple. They call Antoine ‘Frenchie’. There are two brothers, Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido), who take a particular delight in attempting to provoke Antoine. ‘Are we boring you, Frenchie?’ asks Xan early on when Antoine makes quietly to leave the local makeshift bar. Yet they burn with a resentment that goes deeper than even your regular everyday xenophobia. We learn that a Norwegian company wants to buy the village and its land to turn it into a wind farm but Antoine refuses to sign.

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