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Rating: I know well that for many, going to the movies means choosing action or escapist films, sipping a modest amount of popcorn. However, there still exists, though in smaller quantities than in the past, a segment of the audience that prefers watching films focused on so-called more serious and still enjoyable themes. In recent months, the film that has convinced me the most and can be classified as serious is "As bestas. La terra della discordia," directed by the Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen (not very well known here in Italy) and presented last year at the Cannes Festival.
Inspired by a true story that took place about a decade ago in the Galician hinterland, the film follows the incredible odyssey of a French couple with a strong ecological sensitivity, practicing sustainable farming methods. Due to this naïve approach, they are not exactly well-regarded by the villagers. In particular, the neighbors are genuine uncouth cattle farmers (and it crossed my mind that they grew up in a narrow-minded and reactionary environment, loyal to the caudillo Francisco Franco, a sample of the so-called vile damned race) and anything but courteous (to use an understatement) towards the French couple. The situation worsens when a substantial offer arrives from a Norwegian company involved in wind energy exploitation, willing to buy the land in the area, offering significant compensation to the landowners, to install wind turbines. Everyone would agree, except for the two French ecologists, and needless to say, I'll leave to those who wish to watch the film the pleasure of discovery, the developments of the story will be tragic.
In my opinion, the salient feature of "As bestas" is that it falls into the category of certain political cinema in the broadest sense, as was the case in the past in Italy with an author worth rediscovering like Elio Petri. Sorogoyen certainly offers us a work rich in tension (as taught by the great Hitchcock), but he knows how to tackle those major themes that are on the agenda today, such as the problematic relationship between man and nature, xenophobia, racism. Just to say, the French couple is viewed with suspicion and disdain by the Galician villagers (the nickname "francesino" is uttered with derision to protagonist Antoine Denis) even though they are luxury migrants who did not land from some sea boat. Also, for those who work the hard land, breaking their backs, like the aforementioned villagers, nature is seen as a harsh and unwelcoming entity, far from idyllic (as far as they are concerned, talking about a "green turn" must seem like a lunatic discourse).
In short, there is much to reflect upon, in the light of the facts presented in a fast-paced film, on that so utopian theory dear to Rousseau, according to which there exists the noble savage immersed in primordial nature. Meeting those uncouth inhabitants in the Galician hinterland, if anything, one can observe how the state of nature described by philosopher Hobbes is imbued with wild and criminal fury, difficult to contain. And already the Latin Fathers spoke of "homo homini lupus," and to dispel any doubt on the matter, in addition to reading the facts of daily news, it would be enough to revisit films like "Straw Dogs" by Peckinpah and "Deliverance" by Boorman, both authors to whom the excellent Rodrigo Sorogoyen is somewhat indebted.
If you love cinema that stimulates the viewer to reflect on the contradictory human nature, don't miss "As bestas."
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