This dual Cannes Critics’ Week prize winner offers an engrossing take on the nature of violence through the lens of an unorthodox attempt at rehabilitation in the heart of the Colombian jungle.

After a deadly act involving a case of mistaken identity, adolescent Eliú finds himself incarcerated in a strange work camp cum rehabilitation facility somewhere in the Colombian rainforest. There are no walls, but the jungle ensures there’s no escape for the teenage inmates, who alternate manual labour with ritualistic group sessions run by the camp’s questionable warden-therapist. Having settled into a fragile routine, Eliú is less than thrilled by the arrival of his unrepentant partner in crime, El Mono, who brings chaos and troubling connections to the outside world.

Frequently compared with Alejandro Landes’ Monos (MIFF 2019) for its beautiful and symbolic use of the country’s breathtaking wilderness and its dystopian, William Golding–adjacent storyline, La Jauría is simultaneously more realistic and more primal. The central concern of Andrés Ramírez Pulido’s feature debut – which won the Grand Prize at Cannes Critics’ Week – is the recurring cycle of violence and its disastrous effect on the young people it ensnares. Balthazar Lab’s lush cinematography helps to create an atmosphere that both counterpoints and underscores the film’s devastating themes, while Pulido’s screenplay, which won the Authors Society award, simmers with anxiety and tension.

“A finely calibrated mix of recognizable social realism and dystopian weirdness … La Jauría really is a very special film.” – Deadline