This film turned out to be one of the highlights of the 2019 BFI London Film Festival as Landes takes us into the hallucingenic territory of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and even William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies. A group of eight heavily-armed child-soldiers are left entirely alone in a deserted lime mine, high up in the mountains, to guard a hostage. She is an American Scientist whom they refer to as ‘the Doctor’. On occasion, ‘the messenger’ (an impish troll-like Wilson Salazar) brings them supplies and information. He impresses upon them that he was a member of the feared FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) which establishes his authority. (This fact is also not lost on the young actors, as, in real life, Salazar was indeed recruited by FARC at the tender age of 14 and he remained with them for a good ten years). The ‘messenger’ remains for a few days trying to instil brutal military discipline through repetitive drills, as he also plays on their fears of becoming victims themselves and losing their position in the group. One does and suffers appalling consequences.
This film examines the dynamics of power among this group of adolescents, who themselves have been taken hostages by War. We learn little of their individual backgrounds but they are clearly also victims of society, orphaned, unloved and rejected themselves. Being attached to a group, however tenuously, gives them some hope.
One of the outstanding ingredients of this production, that adds to the overall sense of awe, is the majestic use of sound, designed by the accomplished Lena Esquenazi. She had already worked with Landes on his earlier production ‘Porfirio’ (2011) and has gained a reputation with films like Frida (with Salma Hayek), Cilantro y Perejil (1996) and Duck Season (2004). Coupled with an impressive Mica Levi score (Under the Skin/ Jackie), and the unusual locations: both the impressive and derelict mine in the mountains, so high that it’s often enveloped in ominous clouds, as well as the dense jungle into which they have to flee when their base is discovered and the cohesiveness of the group begins to fall apart.
Wilson Salazar, the 'Messenger',with Big Foot (Moisés Arias) first on right.
The child soldiers have taken, or been given, noms de guerre, like Rambo, Pitufo, Smurf, Big Foot, Lady, Dog and Boom Boom, but there is nothing funny about their situation. The American scientist (Julianne Nicholson) is very resourceful but driven to despair. She is torn by wanting to trust the children who braid her hair and care for her, while also realizing that they are just as desperate as she is, and will not hesitate to take fatal choices, which she also has to face.
The atmosphere is surreal, is it all a nightmare, or a delirium? Maybe… but all too real as well. Alejandro Landes has created an outstanding landmark film that echoes the situation of child soldiers in many parts of the world where they are manipulated, while themselves manipulating others below them in the pecking order. This is a film you will not forget, superbly shot by cameraman Jasper Wolf, who, amazingly, had never filmed outside his native Holland!
Committing to the obligatory daily drills and military-style exercises, the evenings dissolve into hedonism and a madness all their own, as the children (average age about 13) marry themselves off to have sex, or play with night- vision goggles, as they fire their weapons drunkenly into the night, leading to inevitable disasters.
When they are forced to flee into the jungle after an attack on their base, Bigfoot (the charismatic Moisés Arias, famous for his role as ‘Rico ’in Disney’s “Hannah Montana”) appoints himself leader, becoming an impulsive and dangerous dictator who vows to break away from ‘ the organization’ and keep the hostage for their own benefits. However, this decision merely takes them on an even darker trip of horror.
There is a phenomenal physicality and tactile element to the images, including an escape as they are swept down by a fast-flowing white-water river in a gorge. These scenes have a hallucinatory quality, in particular the underwater scenes where the figures are enveloped in bubbles as they speed along (shot by cinematographer Peter Zuccarini known for his work on Pirates of the Caribbean).
Director Alejandro Landes: -
“The bubbles scene was very special for me. The bubbles are very important, more than the actual image, it is the metaphor, the poetry and what they implied. For me, they signify a last breath… a last bubble of air…”
Moisés Arias in the torrent of white water.
There were enormous challenges to working in these different conditions: -
“The locations would change in an instant. At the mountain peak , it would suddenly become shrouded in cloud or worse, torrential rain. Then there was the equatorial light that was so intense… Having so many actors in the scenes, so many protagonists … so many children! It has been a risky venture, a great deal to gamble on in only one film. Not only is there the question of a point of view, there is the complexity of the themes…”
Nevertheless, Alejandro Landes has understood the dynamics of the power struggles and the fears that underlie primal instincts and has effectively projected these onto the screen: -
Alejandro Landes filming MONOS
“I attempted to grab two vertiginous situations: adolescence and war, and hold them up as windows to human nature. That is when you see the dynamics of power, the desire to be loved, the desire to lead, the switches of alliances, the games of the hierarchies of power, that you might find in any human group… in the streets, in a school, in a family… but here, as the situations are so extreme everything becomes more overt. That is also why, in a war environment, although people might have only known each other for 6 months, they forge life-time friendships that are extremely strong… so the idea was to hold onto those two moments and elements that are so vertiginous, to accentuate what takes place.”
Filming at 4300 metres above sea level, in the abandoned mine, was, in itself, a challenge. There is a notable lack of oxygen and it is very hard to move with agility, “… you can only move slowly, as if you were drunk”.
But the experience was quite special for Landes:-
“ It was very intense, but also very beautiful, because everyone thought… well, the children need to have psychologists and psychiatrists, professors and nannies to care for them so that they do not become traumatized by the experience… but, quite to the contrary, it was fascinating to see the children, as they felt empowered, feeling a sense of responsibility and knowing that they were building something important in the process, they flourished. Their positive spirit infected the whole group, even the crew … their energy… because everyone was at the limit of their capacity… I mean… people were being paid, but not to be in these conditions… we were pushing the boundaries… the mosquitos… everything… you couldn’t go back home, you couldn’t even phone home and there were certainly no Sundays on the sofa with your loved ones… that couldn’t happen.”
Finding the cast of the child-soldiers was a journey all of its own: -
“We searched and searched…. It was amazing. We auditioned over 800 children. Of those, we chose 25. Then we took those 25 and carried out acting exercises and improvisations in the mornings and in the afternoons. They would, for instance, have to roar like a lion… we also gave them some real sections of the script to work on, but they were unaware of that and would carry out the exercises and that is how we finally picked the last 8.”
Alejandro Landes never had any formal cinematic studies of any kind, but he had an enlightened father who chose a more creative route for him. His cinematic heroes are those who created films that most moved him, like Brazilian director’s João Moreira Salles’ film “SANTIAGO” (2008) a moving biopic of his own father’s butler. Or “HUMANITÉ” (1999) by Bruno Dumont, that tells the story of a policeman who has lost touch with his emotions but finds he has to investigate the rape and murder of a schoolgirl. Another film that impacted him was Steve McQueen’s extraordinary historical drama “HUNGER” (2008) featuring Michael Fassbinder, about the 1981 hunger strike by Irish dissidents in jail. These are all films that have a massive impact on the emotions. No one walks away unscathed, Landes has picked up on this.
Alejandro Landes: -
“Film has always accompanied me, in my lowest moments and in the highest. I always wanted to watch cinema, but although my father forbade us to watch TV as kids, he did allow us to watch movies. We had his VHS tapes and I would watch the same films over and over, ‘till I developed a sensation of closeness with them, as if they were a great friend…I had never considered film be a profession or job I could do, until one day I realized I was deeply in love with this great ‘ friend’ in some way. I have never studied film, but what moves me are the emotions I can experience as a spectator, that is what most caught my attention. The awareness of the emotions that films can provoke. Also, film has something subversive in it that appeals not only to our conscious mind, but also to the unconscious, because it’s really the language of dreams, don’t you think so?
MONOS will be in cinemas from October 25th 2019.
Director Alejandro Landes
Writers Alejandro Landes (story & screenplay) Alexis Dos Santos (screenplay)
DOP Jasper Wolf
Production Nicolas vruj, Fernando Echeverri, Alejandro Landes, Cristina Landes, Santiago Zapata
Sound Design Lena Esquenazi
Music Mica Levi
Editor Ted Guard, Yorgos Mayropsaridis, Santiago Otheguy
Production Co. Stela Cine
CAST: Julianne Nicholson, Moisés Arias, Sofia Buenaventura, Laura Castrillón, Wilson Salazar, Paul Cubide, Deibi Rueda.
