On a faraway Colombian mountaintop, child soldiers with guns and war names must make sure that Doctora, a kidnapped American woman, stays alive. But when a battle approaches and a borrowed milk cow is killed by accident, playtime is over.

Comparisons to Apocalypse Now and Lord of the Flies don’t begin to get at the fevered atmosphere of this startling survivalist thriller from Alejandro Landes. Driven by Mica Levi’s pulsating score, Monos tears through Colombia’s alien landscapes, on an anarchic joyride into the heart of darkness.