Imagine 2024 Review: MI BESTIA

It's almost funny how well puberty and horror mix, especially for women. It's not just bodies and moods that change with hormones, but also the behavior of everyone else. Some see an innocent cherub changing into a possible sexual conquest, to be pursued or protected, or even a sudden rival for attention. For everyone in puberty, their place in society changes, but again, this is especially true for women.

In Camila Beltrán's feature film debut Mi Bestia (My Beast), the woman-this-is-especially-true-for is 13-year-old Mila. She grows up in 1996's Colombia, in its capital Bogotá, and religious fanatics are worried the upcoming lunar eclipse will herald the biblical apocalypse. The sensationalist media speak of murders and satanic rituals, so how should a girl react when she feels she's changing so much, physically and in yearnings? Indeed, when something strange happens to her, is it normal? And if it's not, who can you tell if everyone sees the devil in every shadow? And is her new stepfather overprotective or just a sleazeball?

Beltrán doesn't tread any new ground here as we've seen this material played out a few times already, for fun (like in Ginger Snaps) or far more seriously (like recently in Amanda Nell Eu's Tiger Stripes). But the setting is special, the inner animal Mila encounters is refreshingly different, and the film manages to defy its obvious low budget. It played at this year's Neuchâtel festival and in Amsterdam at the Imagine festival, and at both locations it was in the same roster as Emma Benestan's Animale (reviewed here). Seen together, Mi Bestia has about a tenth of that other film's polish or visual artistry. But in heart, the two are equal, and while I would not call it the better film, Mi Bestia left me feeling a lot better after having seen it.


Mi Bestia is currently travelling the festival circuit worldwide.