The Beloved

The acclaimed film director Esteban Martínez (Javier Bardem) is a legend, both for his impressive body of work and his notorious past filled with drink, violence, and excesses. When he returns to Spain after thirteen years for the filming of his new movie, he unexpectedly offers his estranged daughter Emilia, an actress whose career is struggling to take off, the lead role. What initially seems like a chance for reconciliation soon turns into an emotional minefield. As father and daughter stand together on the film set, the boundaries between fiction and reality blur, and old wounds inevitably surface. 

The Beloved is a tense father-daughter drama by Oscar-nominated director Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Las Bestias, Madre) that premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Skyfall) delivers one of the most layered performances of his career, with Victoria Luengo (The Room Next Door, Amarga Navidad) as a convincing co-star. With The Beloved, Sorogoyen tells a complex and poignant story about the dynamics between parents and children, artistry, and the thin line between love and manipulation.