I went early to prep it up,” says Landes. “The
night before it had rained really hard, and just
as the underwater photographer and the kids
were unloading, a noise was heard at the top
of the canyon, and a 40-foot tree came hurtling
down the canyon and landed at [actor] Sofi a
Buenaventura’s feet. People were absolutely
shaking, the assistant director and production
designer started crying — that tree could
have killed everyone. So we didn’t shoot that
morning, it was very intense. But by the end of
the afternoon we had to go back at it, because
everything had happened, but at the same time
nothing had happened.”HOLDING IT TOGETHER
Landes had the weight of responsibility on
his shoulders, and on location he worked
46 days straight, not eating often, not sleeping
much. Eventually he broke, collapsing.
“I couldn’t get up, I had a shooting pain in my
abdomen,” he remembers. “We had a helicopter
on call for emergencies but it was pouring rain
and the helicopter wasn’t able to come down. So
the gold miners who lived there, who we’d hired
to help us, generously said, ‘We’ll take him out.’
It takes four hours to walk up that canyon, and
they put me on a stretcher and fi ve of them
carried me out of there. They took me to a local
hospital and I was there for a day on an ID
[intravenous drip]. I think it was because I’d just
been not stopping, and eating sporadically.”
Otherwise, he got through it. “I just entered
a sort of tunnel,” he explains of his commitment.
“Nothing else existed for me but Monos. I was at
the limit of what I could do, both physically and
mentally, which was scary — but also very
exhilarating.” ALEX GODFREYMONOS IS OUT NOW ON BLU-RAY, DVD AND DOWNLOADThat was it. It was tough, because the power
that we did have was being used for the cameras
and for the batteries for the very little light
that we used. We didn’t have a refrigerator so
were just eating lentils and chickpeas, things
we didn’t have to ration. There was no escape,
everyone was sharing tents, it was very close
quarters. Very intense. We brought things in
that you can’t control — fog, rain, mud, water,
fl ies — put it all into the texture of the fi lm,
to stop asking, ‘Why me?’ and start asking,
‘Why not?’”
TOUGHING IT OUT
Trickier than the already tricky circumstances
was the fact that almost all of the leads were
under 18. “Having them go through the boot-
camp exercise at the beginning really made
a diff erence, because the people that wanted
to stay had really shined,” says Landes. “It
was very challenging but I think that that was
very energising and exciting for them, because
they had each other. They lived together, they
were all there together, there was a group spirit.
At no point did they let go. At fi rst we were
all concerned that they’d need a nanny and
a psychologist and a teacher, but if we treated
them with kid gloves, they hated it. To them
it was an absolutely crazy summer camp.
The shoot was daunting, it was hard and rough,
but the kids were really acting, they were
remarkable. Even going down the rapids they
were doing diff erent takes. They weren’t just
enduring hardships, they were building
performances. They were selling it!”
SURVIVING DEATH
Working in such unpredictable conditions, it’s
a surprise that nothing went wrong. Except it
did. “I was about to shoot a scene in a ravine and
Top left: Paul Cubides as Dog, who faces solitary confi nement after an incident with a cow. Left: Landes’ “beautiful,
brutal dreamscape”. Above: The Monos are put through their paces by The Messenger, played by Wilson Salazar, a real-life
former child soldier who eventually deserted.