A gorgeous look at child soldiers caught in an ugly world
The fog seen from the mountaintop seems impossibly thick. Beneath it lies regimented chaos, of which the viewer will have to pay close attention if any clarity is to come. Stark and beautiful, the world of Monos is one of conflict, youth, and a center that cannot hold.
Filmed in mountains (and later the jungle) of Columbia, Monos follows a group of child soldiers spending their teenage years guarding a prisoner instead of going to the mall. They are part of a larger guerrilla group called The Organization. Occasionally a diminutive drill sergeant arrives to train, berate, and instruct the group. In between, they’re on their own, struggling to deal with survival, power, and responsibility.
Their key charge is “La Doctora,” Sara Watson (Julianne Nicholson), an American who has somehow fallen into this troublesome spot. Her red hair shows graying roots as her body fights the elements and the situation in a haggard display. She’s ostensibly no threat, but she’s not given up the fight. Throughout Monos, the group must deal with the potentiality of escape by this precious treasure.
Amidst all of this is the crew, each with a code name and very little else. Bigfoot. Dog. Lady. Boom Boom. Rambo. They live. They laugh. They love. They shoot their guns in the air and elsewhere. There’s not much margin for error high in the mountains, and after a succession of shocks, the group makes their way to a new outpost in the jungle. We go from scenic shots of peaks and clouds to verdant plant life, running water, and lots of mud.
Spikes of hope and desolation meet the unit as a whole and individuals on their own journeys. By film’s end, there’s a feral sheen to the entire group, as the camera pans down from a skyward perch, showing the immensity of this river land, full as it is of sorrow, pain, and the lost innocence of conscripted youth.