Mi Bestia

Blood moon and teenage angst in a spectacular Franco-Colombian debut. Russian premiere as part of the contemporary programme of the Festival of Singular Films.

2024, Camila Beltrán

Colombia–France

77 minutes, Spanish with Russian subtitles, 18+

Starring: Stella Martinez, Mallely Murillo, Marcela Mar, Héctor Sánchez

The year is 1996. Mila is 13 years old, and she has trouble restraining the anxiety inside her. Where did it come from? Perhaps the strange feeling that her body is about to change irrevocably. Perhaps it is the loneliness she feels: her mother is occupied with her prestigious job and her boyfriend David, so she barely gives her daughter any attention. Possibly, Mila is alarmed by David’s strange, timid but pestering behaviour when they are alone together. But the most likely explanation lies in the blood moon advancing on Bogota: at least the nuns at Mila’s Catholic school promise that it will bring the devil with it.

Shot from Mi Bestia, 2024

Martínez exceptionally plays Mila with unrivalled angst, a symphony of emotions boiling beneath the surface.

— Olivia Popp, Cineuropa

Camila Beltrán, a Columbian director who has had short films screened at European festivals, is in no hurry to reveal the secret of the heroine’s experience to the viewer. This is all for the good. My Beast elegantly uses both methods of genre cinema and the aesthetic of auteur film, reminding us simultaneously of Brian de Palma’s Carrie and the anxious sensuality of Lucrecia Martel. The supernatural and realistic are intertwined here so fancifully, and the natural, animal essence is such a persistent part of the fabric of urban life, that the portrait of a changing girl proves worthy of a mediaeval bestiary.

The screening will begin with a brief speech by the curator in Russian. If you require interpretation into English, please request it at least three days in advance by emailing international@ges-2.org.

The world premiere of the film was held in the ACID programme of the Cannes Festival (2024).