Starring: Sophia Buenaventura, Julian Giraldo, Karen Quintero, Laura Castrillon, Deiby Rueda, Paul Cubides, Sneider Castro, Moises Arias, Julianne Nicholson, Wilson Salazar
Distributor: Madman Films
Runtime: 102 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2020
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As the audience watches a group of children at the opening of Monos, eight of them, blindfold, playing football, trying to score goals, then seeing them lined up, being drilled, military-like, thoughts about child soldiers and children being exploited by the military readily come to mind. And, with the group of eight, being drilled by a dwarf leader, strict precision, demanding physical exercises, then his departure and their suddenly being let loose and behaving like undisciplined teenagers, perhaps many will think of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
And this is not wrong, especially as the scenario unfolds, the interactions of these children with each other, in the war context, their holding a hostage, some battle sequences, and the youngest of the group, nicknamed Smurf, tied up and facing the pig’s head, shown in close-up.
There is some magnificent photography, mountain vistas, then a descent into the lush jungle, rivers and falls.
There is no explicit explanation about the war situation. The group of children are stationed at an outpost, experience an attack, and then have to set up headquarters down-mountain in the jungle. They are guarding a hostage, an American engineer, played by Julianne Nicholson. She is made to participate at times in the activities, photographed with a newspaper to authenticate her capture, then her attempts to escape.
The children are identified visually at first, then by their nicknames which range from Wolf, Dog, Bigfoot, Boom-boom, and three girls, Lady, the young Swede, and the unexpectedly named Rambo. We get to know them, some of them rather well, a crisis after they are given a cow to provide them with milk and in some mayhem, it is shot, and the leader, Wolf, made to take responsibility – even to his death. At times, they have to act like adults. At times, they don’t know how to act as adults.
On the narrative level, the audience is plunged into an unfamiliar world, asked to think about contemporary uprisings and revolutions, especially in Latin America, to think about the exploitation of children in war and the consequences for them.
Towards the end of the film, there are some hints of ordinariness, a couple with children playing, their watching the television, a slight item about making jelly babies in Germany – and then tragedy. There is a helicopter rescue, flying in over the city – and, rather than an ending, the narrative just stopping at a crucial moment, challenging the audience to reflect on what they have seen and felt, and what they might anticipate for the future.
(Mono is Spanish for monkey – and Monos, is a Spanish saying for “how cute!”)
Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
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