10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Monos (2019 Feature Film)

Alejandro Landes | Colombia, Argentina, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Uruguay, USA | 2019 | color | DCP | 102′ | Spanish | e.s.

This hypnotizing, adventurous film about child soldiers in the jungle throws human logic overboard. In Monos, nature’s laws apply, the way teens imagine them. The result is a tense, explosive cocktail of a socially critical war film and a sensual, erotically charged coming-of-age story.

Deep in the Latin American jungle, eight teens constitute a paramilitary unit. Their task is simple and consists of guarding an American woman who has been taken hostage and a dairy cow called Shakira. However, sometimes it’s the simple tasks that prove the most difficult, especially for youngsters.

The psychedelic adventure Monos immerses you in the world of pubescent child soldiers. In this whirlpool, human logic has been thrown overboard and nature’s laws apply. Director Alejandro Landes combines Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness, but in a hybrid, post-colonial context. His film critiques imperialism and the violence of war, how we think about gender, bodies, and sexuality – puberty in the film is depicted as a battle that rages in the body. Jasper Wolf’s super-sharp images and Mica Levi’s playful, rousing, but also disturbing soundtrack make Monos a nail-biting cinematic experience about the unexpected consequences of growing up amid war and violence.

Place: The Cinemas 2

Date: 12 April 2019

Time: 16:00

Duration: 1:12

Year in
Festival

2019

Director

Alejandro Landes

Camera

Jasper Wolf

Country

Colombia
Argentina
Netherlands
Denmark
Sweden
Germany
Uruguay
USA

Editor

Ted Guard
Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Santiago Otheguy

Language

Spanish

Length

102′

Music

Mica Levi

Production Company

No Franja

Production Design

Daniela Schneider

Year of Production

2019

Alejandro LANDES (1980, Brazilië) is een regisseur, producent, scenarioschrijver en journalist van Colombiaanse en Ecuadoraanse afkomst. Hij studeerde Politieke Economie aan Brown University en kwam in aanraking met de filmwereld als productieassistent bij het nieuwsprogramma Oppenheimer Presenta. Na de documentaire Cocalero (2007) maakte hij zijn speelfilmdebuut Porfirio (2011). Zijn tweede speelfilm Monos (2019) ging in wereldpremière in de World Cinema Dramatic Competition van Sundance.

 

Filmography

Cocalero (2007, doc), Porfirio (2011), Monos (2019)