Monos

Patagrande, Rambo, Leidi, Sueca, Pitufo, Lobo, Perro and Bum Bum. Eight stray teenagers, each bearing a code name, form a paramilitary squad on a remote hilltop. They are instinctively drawn towards hedonism and ferocity. A messenger delivers instructions from the Organisation: they are to look after a dairy cow called Shakira and an abducted woman from the USA known as Doctora. But their carefree time comes to an end when death pays them a visit and their position is compromised, forcing them to relocate deeper into the jungle. Alejandro Landes and co-writer Alexis Dos Santos have created a disquieting take on the war film and survival thriller. Theirs is a work of scant explanations but of visceral emotions. Heightened by Jasper Wolf’s piercing cinematography, Mica Levi’s superbly tense score and uncannily sharp editing by Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Ted Guard and Santiago Otheguy, Landes’ exhilarating third feature impresses by zooming in on the shifting allegiances and power struggles of an adolescent, primal tribe.