Suiza

The verdant countryside of Galicia, Spain, is the setting for Belpois’s immersive and disturbing debut about a farmer whose world is transformed after a sensuous outsider arrives. At the outset, Tomás Lopez Gabarre, 40, undergoes surgery for lung cancer. He’s been prosperous in the secluded village where residents are used to living frugally, though he’s been an unhappy, taciturn widower for 16 years. Then he sees a French-speaking woman named Suiza at the local bar, who one of the villagers had recently found sleeping in a chicken coop, filthy and starving. Suiza doesn’t understand Spanish, but Tomás is overcome with savage lust for her, which he describes as violent and almost uncontrollable (“I wanted to rape that woman, like a barbarian”). They embark on a sexual relationship, which may or may not have begun consensually, and after a French woman teaches Suiza some Spanish, Suiza and Tomás fall in love. Belpois does a good job showing how Suiza’s fresh outlook transforms Tomás’s farm, as well as the impressions of the small-minded villagers who initially believed she was “stupid,” though this tender material feels discordant with Tomás’s coarse language and a tragic, abruptly violent ending. This rough-edged anti–fairy tale is not for the faint of heart. (Nov.)