Monos

A film set on a mountaintop in Colombia. There are eight young people. All are adolescents, all are armed, and they hold a summit in the name of an organisation. They have given themselves names. Rambo, Bigfoot, Lady, Wolf and the others; their real names are never used. They have two tasks. To guard a hostage and to feed a cow entrusted to them by the organisation. The hostage is an American engineer. She tells nobody what has happened and is looking for a way out. An instructor arrives. A short, hard man; he drills them, sets rules and leaves. Then there is an accident. The cow is shot, and that is the moment the order starts to come apart. From there the film is a story of disintegration. An air strike, a descent into the forest, a river and a group that keeps shrinking. What the narrative is interested in is not war but hierarchy: the children's contest over who will lead is more decisive than the fighting outside. The organisation is never named. Who they are fighting for, which side they are on, and why, are not explained. The setting is part of the narrative. The first part is above the clouds on a bare mountain plateau; the second is entirely inside the forest, and the two look like different films. The music carries the tension. The composer mixes electronics and breath, and in some scenes the sound is more disturbing than the image. Most of the cast are not professionals. They were found through open auditions and the group lived together in camp for a long time before shooting. Sofía Buenaventura, Julianne Nicholson, Moisés Arias and Julián Giraldo are in the cast. Alejandro Landes directed and co-wrote. Who it is for: anyone who likes formally bold and uncomfortable films. Who it is not for: anyone expecting context; the narrative explains nothing and most of the characters remain nameless.