Name: Don't Be So Political: MONOS (2019)
Start: 2026-03-29T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Revue Cinema

Don’t Be So Political is a monthly film series that engages with films through a political lens. Each screening is preceded by an expert Q&A. Hosted by Zach Wortzman

“The Organization is our family.”

Atop a crumbling mountain fortress in Colombia, a group of teenaged rebel soldiers must protect a hostage and a dairy cow named Shakira.

Director Alejandro Landes addresses untrod territory in his exploration into Colombia’s civil war and rebel militias. Conscripting an eclectic cast of non-professional actors to star along side Julianne Nicholson (Hacks) and Moises Arias (Hannah Montana), Landes captures a reality difficult to look at directly were it not for the breathtaking imagery of Jasper Wolf’s cinematography. Accompanied by the haunting whistles of the inimitable Mica Levi’s score, Monos presents audiences with a cinematic experience harkening back to Copolla’s Apocalypse Now or Herzog’s Aguirre, Wrath of God. Released while Colombia was on the precipice of its first peace in a generation, the prospect of rebels reintegrating into society gave rise to new threats.

Filmed entirely on location and almost entirely practically, Monos offers one of the most immersive experiences of war in recent memory. Winner of the Audience Award and Best Colombian Film at the Cartagena Film Festival, Monos was also recognized at Sundance with the World Cinema Special Jury Award. Transporting the viewer from ethereality high above the clouds down to the mud-caked depths of the jungle, Monos holds a broken mirror to the irreparable and reflects back possibility. A must see on the big screen. (ZACH WORTZMAN)