Monos (Landes, 2019)
Colombia’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2020 was one of the first films released in New Zealand after the cinemas reopened following the March-May 2020 Covid lockdown.
I reviewed it for RNZ’s At the Movies at the time:
Monos opens in the misty mountains of Colombia. Without anything in the way of exposition, we soon realise that something terrible has happened. Monos (or Monkeys) is the name of a squad of child soldiers, alone in the mountains, living in some kind of derelict concrete bunker, charged with guarding a precious hostage.
We don’t know whether this is a fictional present-day civil war or some kind of post-apocalyptic battle for resources – some of the uniform choices worn by these kids are straight out of Mad Max. In any case, times are bad and only the occasional visit from a weird little character called Messenger seems to instil any discipline or order.
On his latest visit Messenger brings with him a new mission – a dairy cow named Shakira who they are to milk and protect because looking after it will prove to the poor locals that this army – known as the Organisation – is on their side.
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In Monos, the squad isn’t all boys – indeed there are some gender fluidity in some of the characters – and I think the writer-director Alejandro Landes is deliberately trying to stay away from making any kind of gendered judgement. They are just kids – with all of the lack of impulse control that implies.
…
There are quite a few sequences in Monos that are real edge-of-your-seat stuff, the tension that goes along with that sense of dread. It’s not for the fainthearted, I’m guessing, but it’s also not like anything you’ve seen recently. Thrilling and unnerving.
You can listen to the full review here (6m32s).
Where to find Monos
Aotearoa: Streaming on Māori+ (with ads)
Australia: Digital rental from Apple or Amazon
USA: Streaming on Max and DirectTV or digital rental
UK: Digital rental
