MONOS

Guerrillas, stationed out in the misty nowhere on a Colombian plateau. The eight child soldiers, who go by noms de guerre such as Rambo, Dog and Smurf, are tasked with forming a paramilitary unit in the secluded hinterland. They train intensively and make an effort to guard not only their precious dairy cow, but also the American Doctora, who is held captive on behalf of their “organisation”. But it doesn’t take long for the precarious situation to escalate, and the troupe and their hostage are forced to retreat into the depths of the jungle. Building on this minimal plot, the Brazilian director Alejandro Landes has created a surreal, visually and acoustically stunning survival-fight plot, which transposes the psychological density of William Golding’s island trauma “Lord of the Flies” to the horror of modern warfare. It is above all the imposing imagery and the oscillating soundtrack by Mica Levi that make Monos a highly haunting experience for the senses, emotions and instincts. Hierarchies dissolve, power relations shift, but even in his third feature film, Landes maintains the upper hand of an auteur who places no limits on his expressive powers.