Monos (2019)

Directed by: Alejandro Landes | 103 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Julianne Nicholson, Sofia Buenaventura, Julian Giraldo, Karen Quintero, Laura Castrillón, Deiby Rueda, Paul Cubides, Sneider Castro, Moises Arias, Wilson Salazar, Jorge Román, Valeria Diana Solomonoff

‘Monos’ is a surreal thriller that takes place somewhere in the rugged landscape of a country in South America. Somewhere in the inhospitable mountains, a group of eight teenagers is holding a female American engineer (“Doctora”) hostage on behalf of “the organization”. Their only contact person occasionally drops by for rudimentary paramilitary training or calls them on the radio. ‘Monos’ is the code name of the group and can mean a lot in Spanish and can be interpreted in different ways. The makers indicate that ‘monos’ comes from the Greek word for ‘one’ or ‘alone’, but it is also used to indicate ‘monkeys’.

The teenagers all use pseudonyms. The leader is Wolf (Julian Giraldo) who is allowed to start a relationship with Lady (Karen Quintero). The androgynous Rambo (Sofia Buenaventura) and the headstrong Bigfoot (Moises Arias) are standout members of the group. The others use names like Smurf, Dog, Boom Boom and Swede. The organization’s messenger is simply called Mensajero, which means messenger, and is played by Wilson Salazar. He is small in stature, but impressively muscled and hands out the reins to the group. Interestingly, Salazar was in reality a commander with rebel group FARC for a long time and could thus draw on his own experience in his role.

In the beginning, the teenage commando is given a cash cow to care for named Shakira. It is a lonely existence, in which the young people fight against boredom in the desolate environment. Their group life soon spirals out of control when the cow accidentally dies, the group’s leadership comes into question, and Doctora finds ways to escape. Whereas in the first half of the film the vastness, the mist and the rugged rocks symbolize the group’s distance from civilization, the second half is set in a claustrophobic jungle with treacherous mud and a fast-flowing river.

What the organization’s political objectives are, what they are fighting for, and what government and government authority they are trying to undermine remains unclear. The film was shot in Colombia, but doesn’t reveal where in South America it takes place (although the characters all speak Spanish, which means Brazil loses anyway).

The Colombian director Alejandro Landes, who also co-wrote the screenplay, deliberately did not want to add a location, time or political position. His goal was to show something universal about war and what it does to a country’s youth. The abstract also makes ‘Monos’ partly elusive and – despite the relatively short playing time – a long sitting. The pace is slow and many scenes are deliberately out of focus or filmed in extreme close-up. The effect of portraying the alienation and dehumanization of the members of the group is very much emphasized. The makers sometimes seem to forget that audiences also need another reason to connect with the characters and appreciate the film.

The film regularly reminds – and not entirely coincidentally according to director Landes – of ‘Lord of the Flies’, which places young people in a more or less similar situation. There are also hints of ‘Apocalypse Now’ here and there. Especially in a memorable scene where animal lovers should look the other way.

Optimal use is made of the stunning landscapes and it is here that the camera work of the Dutchman Jasper Wolf comes into its own. The minimal music was composed by Mica Levi, who previously impressed with her dissonant sounds in ‘Jackie’ (2016).

Some of the teens who play the main roles have never been in front of the camera before. Although their characters are usually roughly sketched and not or hardly developed psychologically, they still make an impression. Julianne Nicholson plays a complex character, driven by survival instinct, in a physically challenging role as Doctora.

‘Monos’ is a film with some interesting scenes and observations, but adds little originality. The experienced arthouse visitor will certainly appreciate the film, which is also apparent from the praise and prizes ‘Monos’ collected at various foreign film festivals. It is also the Colombian entry for the Oscar for best foreign film.