Monos: DVD Review

Released by Madman Home Entertainment

With a visually arresting start and an intriguing opening, Columbian film Monos is an intensely taut drama that is as compelling as it is an examination of the feral spirit that lies within us all.

It's the story of a group of teenage troops, who inhabit a mountain top and who are training. Given a cow and a hostage to look after, the octet descend into a chaotic state when things go awry.

In the scheme of life, what happens is minor, but the ripples are wide-ranging and powerful.

Landes' film holds back many details of the wider world, preferring instead to place the viewer in a world of intensity and a powderkeg waiting to ignite. All that's proffered is about The Organisation and even that's scraps at best.

They could be training as child soldiers, and it could be a parable about loss of innocence in Columbia, but robbed of the wider perspective in parts, Monos makes a struggle of that side of its drama.

However, as an examination of a teenage mini society, Monos is life through a prism, a swirling cauldron of efficiency and terrifying consequence.

Thrillingly shot and nervously scored, Monos gets by largely on its visuals and its inherent sense of unease - there's something compelling afoot in these mountains, and thanks to Landes' power opening, Monos is a sickeningly unsettling drama.