Summary
A completely immersive and harrowing experience. This is not one you watch so much as survive. May we all think fondly of Shakira the Milk Cow as we journey through this life together.
Every now and then a film comes along that just blows you out of the water. It’s been eight years since Colombian-Ecuadorian director Alejandro Landes released the award-winning Porfirio, and his follow-up is something transcendent. Filmed in traditionally unreachable locales, it’s visually arresting and wholly enveloping.
Somewhere deep in the mountains and jungles of a place that might be South America, a group of teen soldiers are being trained for an unknown purpose by The Organization. Their primary task is to look after an adult prisoner they call Doctora (Julianne Nicholson). With minimal supervision, raging hormones and loaded guns, it’s not long before things go slightly awry.
The children have nicknames like “Lady”, “Wolf” and “Rambo”, and it’s not a huge leap to think of this as a cross between The Lord of the Flies and Apocalypse Now. As the group heads deep into the jungle, and rigidity and training begin to blend into animalistic and instinctual urges, it rapidly becomes a surrealistic descent into madness.
Made up of a cast of mostly unknowns, the young group brings freshness and immediacy to their performance. Nicholson – known for various Law & Order franchises and I, Tonya – has the difficult task of dramatically holding together a group of scenes in which she is variously bound, gagged, chased, and attacked by swarms of insects.
Yet the real star of the film is Jasper Wolf and his spectacular cinematography. Shot on location in Colombia on the Chingaza National Natural Park and on the jungle of the Samaná River canyon, Wolf and director Landes take full advantage of of the unfamiliar landscapes. At times it seems as though the mountain’s edge is floating in the sky. When the group steps through a cave and emerges in a lush jungle setting, it’s like they are on another planet.
MONOS is not a film that you merely sit through and go about your day. Like the lead characters, it is a test of character and at times, an endurance test. Whatever your feelings, it is impossible to be ambivalent towards the film, and it might just be one of the true masterpieces of the year.
2019 | Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Netherlands, Sweden, Uruguay | DIR: Alejandro Landes | WRITER: Alejandro Landes, Alexis Dos Santos | CAST: Sofia Buenaventura, Julian Giraldo, Julianne Nicholson, Moises Arias | DISTRIBUTOR: Madman Films, Melbourne International Film Festival (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 103 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1 – 18 August 2019 (AUS)
