Monos (film)

Monos is a 2019 drama film directed by Alejandro Landes, written by Landes and Alexis Dos Santos and produced by Fernando Epstein, Santiago Zapata, Cristina Landes and Landes himself. It stars Julianne Nicholson and Moisés Arias. The film happens on a faraway mountaintop, where eight kids with guns watch over a hostage and a conscripted milk cow. It is scheduled to be released on September 13, 2019 by Neon and Participant Media.

The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on 26 January 2019, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award.

Plot
In a remote mountaintop setting somewhere in Latin America, a rebel group of teenage commandos bearing noms de guerre like Rambo, Smurf, Bigfoot, Wolf and Boom-Boom perform military training exercises while watching over a prisoner (Julianne Nicholson) and a conscripted milk cow for a shadowy force known only as "The Organization". After an ambush drives the squadron into the jungle, fracturing their intricate bond, the mission begins to collapse.

Director Alejandro Landes examines the chaos and fog of war from the unique perspective of adolescence, banding together a diverse young cast of seasoned professionals (including Hannah Montana's Moisés Arias) and untrained neophytes thrust into an unforgiving, irrational and often surreal environment where anything can happen — even peace.

Cast

 * Julianne Nicholson as Doctora
 * Moisés Arias as Bigfoot
 * Sofia Buenaventura as Rambo
 * Julian Giraldo as Wolf
 * Karen Quintero as Lady
 * Laura Castrillón as Swede
 * Deiby Rueda as Smurf
 * Esneider Castro as Boom Boom
 * Paul Cubides as Dog
 * Wilson Salazar as The Messenger
 * Jorge Román as The Gold miner

Production
Shot on location in Colombia on the Chingaza páramo in Cundinamarca and on the jungle of the Samaná river canyon in Antioquia. Both locations had never been caught on film due to the extreme conditions in terms of access and weather.

Fernando Epstein, Santiago Zapata, Cristina Landes and Alejandro Landes produced the film under the Stela Cine banner with the support of Caracol Televisión, Cine Colombia, Dago Garcia Producciones, Dynamo, EFD Colombia and all of their international co-producers.

The film is a colombian co-production with El Campo Cine (Argentina), Lemming Film (the Netherlands), Pandora Film Produktion (Germany), Snowglobe Film (Denmark), Mutante Cine (Uruguay), Bord Cadre Films (Switzerland), Film i Väst (Sweden) and CounterNarrative Films (United States).

Release
In January 2019, Neon acquired the U.S distribution rights to the film. A few months later, in March 2019 Participant Media joined as a co-distributor for the territory. . Dates for the theatrical release in Colombia (August 15th) and the U.S (September 13th) were revealed in May 2019.