Review: The Beloved
- CANNES 2026: Rodrigo Sorogoyen delivers a captivating film, superbly written, directed and performed, about the complicated reunion between a film director and his daughter, an actress
“Liv Ullmann once said: the closer the camera gets, the more you have to drop the mask.” Discreetly placed at the heart of the masterfully crafted narrative of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s fascinating The Beloved, unveiled in competition at the 79th Cannes Film Festival (a first at this level for the compelling Spanish filmmaker), this quote from the legendary Norwegian actress perfectly reflects, in its own way, the gradual, highly complex process of reconciliation — marked by intense, simmering pain that flares up in sudden bursts — unfolding between a daughter and her father, caught in the web of a ‘story of betrayal, abandonment and love’.
“I’d like to help you because I’ve never helped you before, but I’ll be ruthless.” Back in his native country after a 15-year career in America, two-time Oscar-winning director Esteban Martínez (Javier Bardem), the former enfant terrible of Spanish cinema, offers his daughter Emilia (Victoria Luengo), an actress struggling to make her break, a major role in his new project, a period film about the conflict in Western Sahara. But the past weighs heavily on their father-daughter relationship, as Esteban abandoned his family just before Emilia’s birth and saw her only sporadically during her childhood — episodes of which the two protagonists have completely different memories. Fueled by guilt, ego, deep wounds, suffocating conflicting emotions and profound communication difficulties, the underlying tension will shift and come to a head during filming on the arid island of Fuerteventura…
Step by step, the plot - masterfully simmered over low heat (steeped in subtext, echoes and gradual revelations) by Sorogoyen and his co-screenwriter Isabel Peña — dissects the nebulous facets of truth and memory centred on the traumatic core of two characters (played to perfection) who struggle to look each other in the eye, yet constantly seek each other’s gaze and clumsily attempt to untangle their past. A whirlpool of raw and repressed emotions, verging on somnambulism, overlaid with the theme of authority and the dynamics of domination and hierarchical violence on film sets where times have changed for the once all-powerful directors. An awareness that the film (which is also, of course, a work about cinema and filmmaking itself) develops very skilfully and subtly towards its climax, without ever losing its main thread of the simplicity of heightened and repressed emotions. A subtle balance that makes The Beloved a poignant and deeply human, spellbinding work, set in a bold and sophisticated visual style (with flashes of black and white, play on formats, etc.) and masterful direction, alternating perspectives to find the best focus in the internalisation and externalisation of dangerous emotional whirlwinds.
The Beloved was produced by Caballo Films with Movistar Plus+, El Ser Querido AIE and Le Pacte. Goodfellas handles international sales.
(Translated from French)
Photogallery 16/05/2026: Cannes 2026 - The Beloved
22 pictures available. Swipe left or right to see them all.
© 2026 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it
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