2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #54. Alejandro Landes – Monos

Alejandro Landes flagged the Sundance folks early in his career, premiering his directorial debut in the docu Cocalero way back in 2007 prior to being a Sundance Directors Lab 2009 participant (same year as Beasts of the Southern Wild) for what would be the Cannes preemed Porfirio in 2011. When not side hustling on designing homes a la Luca Guadagnino (check out his work in Wallpaper), for what sounds like a horrible day in the park in Monos, Landes went on to employ the services of Moisés Arias – who we fondly recall from Sundance entry The Kings of Summer (aka Toy’s House) and Julianne Nicholson — who is turning out to be a recent world cinema contributor). A multi-country co-production, this was co-written with Alexis Dos Santos who brought Unmade Beds to the Park City in 2009 and the score is provided by Mica Levi (Under the Skin, Jackie).

Gist: Written by Alejandro Landes and Alexis Dos Santos, on a faraway mountaintop, eight kids with guns watch over a hostage and a conscripted milk cow.

Production Co./Producers: Fernando Epstein (The Heiresses), Santiago A. Zapata (The Boy), Alejandro and Cristina Landes.

Prediction: World Dramatic Comp or Midnight and/or Rotterdam or Berlin.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Le Pacte (world).