There was something particularly intriguing about The Beloved, the latest film by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, and perhaps that’s because it’s a film I wouldn’t normally see. One of the joys of the attending the London Film Festival is that you get to see a different mix of movies to your normal repertoire and this was undoubtedly one of those opportunities.

It follows Esteban Martínez, an acclaimed film director (played by Javier Bardem), who casts his estranged daughter (Victoria Luengo) in a period piece having not really seen each other for thirteen years. We then see, over the course of two hours, how that decision plays out and the difficulties that arise on set as a result. It’s a tricky character-led piece, with extraordinary performances (particularly from Bardem and Luengo) that expertly navigate the subtle but intense emotional weight between the two leads and how that impacts the film shoot taking place.

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There were a couple of times that it lost me. As the in-fiction on-set conflict escalates, a mix of digital film, 35mm, 16mm and 8mm, widescreen and box formats, colour and black-and-white is used. Although this visually looked good, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was trying to represent and often found it distracting from the events of the film. I did, however, find the use of the film being made in the story as a fascinating plot device, with some really interesting and clever uses of scenes being filmed to show the increasing tension between the two characters. It felt similar to the divisive plot choice in Digger, although the use of a film being made within a movie worked better for me than that of Tom Cruise‘s recent escapade. 

I also felt that the opening scene, a long single-take conversation between Esteban and Emilia (Luengo), was a really powerful piece of cinema, with the internet informing me it took place on the first day of filming with no prior face-to-face meeting between the two beforehand. I have a lot of time for decisions like that when it comes to filmmaking. It’s not something that everyone would commit to doing, but I find that it can really add another layer to the performance when it works. I think for me, anything filmmakers can do, particularly in dramas, to elevate the emotions they want to create for audiences is worth doing. It’s clear from watching this that Sorogoyen has really actively centred the evolving relationship between the two as the heart of the film, and it enables both Barden and Luengo to soar with their performances. It feels like an incredibly human film, and even if some of the artistic choices lost me, it was still worth watching for that, alongside the clever direction from Sorogoyen alone.

★★★

Now showing at 2026 BFI London Film Festival / Javier Bardem, Victoria Luengo, Raúl Prieto, Pepa Gracia, Pablo Gómez-Pando / Dir: Rodrigo Sorogoyen / Madman Films / 15