“I wanted to bring something a little different to the table”: Baltasar Kormákur on survival thriller Beast

Beast is almost the personification of a successful summer blockbuster. Following Idris Elba’s recently widowed Dr Nate Samuels, and his two bereaved daughters’ ill fated safari adventure into the Mopani Game Reserve in South Africa, the film is executed with a lean, efficient power, which methodically builds towards a thrilling climactic sequence. Baltasar Kormákur’s work is a suitable showcase for Elba’s talents, allowing him to lean into multiple facets of his screen magnetism, providing an emotional anchor to the picture’s untamed setup, as well as a superb physical performance which lends additional heft to its already scrupulously crafted action.

Behind the camera, however, Kormákur, the man behind such epics as Adrift and Everest, guides the action with his keen eye for cinematic spectacle grounded in the natural world. Utilising, to pulsating effect, long POV takes that throw the audience into the maelstrom of the action, the Icelandic director approached the story – originally conceived by producer Jamie Primak Sullivan – with a singular vision, setting Beast apart from the lineage of “man vs beast” stories in cinema.

The Upcoming had the good fortune to be invited to speak with Kormákur about the execution of this vision, what attracted him to the story, the thematic presence of the power of nature in his work and his hope that Beast will perform the function of raising public awareness of the urgent issue of poaching. 

Matthew McMillan

Beast is released nationwide on 26^th August 2022. Read our review here.