72SSIFF - 20/28 September 2024
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The Nature of the Beast

Franco Rosso
United Kingdom
Synopsis

Something is killing sheep up on the moors outside Haverston. Is it a large dog, or is it something more sinister: a "Beast"?

Unemployment, the Beast of the 1980s, hovers over the small northern town. The men at Stone Cross Mill have nothing left to lose, threatened with its closire and redundancies, they occupy the mill. Bill Coward is a loner. His mum ran away when he was a baby, and Bill has been brought up with rough affection by his father, Ned, and grandfather, Chunder, who both work at the mill. Playing truant up on the moors with his mate Mick is better than enduring hours of boredom at school. What's the point of school? bill would rather live on the moors, a wild and free man. When he hears that there may be a creature, a predator, roaming the moors, Bill is disturbed and fascinated by the idea of a "Beast". 

As the workforce are duped by the management into leaving the mill, the "Beast" enters the town for the first time. Chunder's pride and joy, his game birds ad other hens on his allorment, are all killed. Chunder is devastated, his spirit broken, and Bill's fascination with "The Beast of Haverston Moor" turns into a full-blown obsession.

But as Bill is tracking down the "Beasts", the "controlled" world of school teachers and social workers closes in on him. Bill's crusade becomes a fight for his own freedom. 


Director
Franco Rosso (Italy)
Running Time
95 m.
Country
United Kingdom
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