In this first-time feature from Colombia, a group of convicted juvenile criminals are stranded in a remote country estate, where they undergo a bizarre rehabilitation process while providing free labor for a gang of shady correctional officials. It’s an intriguing set-up for a film that never fully ignites, either in terms of the direction or the performances, to the point that the documentary aspects wind up outshining the fictional ones.
In some ways, The Pack (La Jauria), with its cast of teenage newcomers and its jungle setting, recalls another recent Colombian film: Alejandro Landes’ remarkable debut feature from 2019, Monos. But whereas the latter was a mesmerizing acid-trip into the lives of pint-sized guerilla soldiers left to their own devices, writer-director Andrés Ramírez Pulido opts for a much more minimalist and monotone approach here, which is unfortunate because the subject matter is fascinating and the world depicted worthy of attention.
The story is centered around two boys, Eliú (Jhojan Estiven Jimenez) and El Mono (Maicol Andrés Jimenez), among a half-dozen other offenders doing time in an isolated facility that resembles a long-abandoned country club, and which they’ve been tasked with cleaning up. The prisoners serve at the whim of two masters, the intense, god-fearing and slightly deranged, Alvaro (Miguel Viera), and a boss we only see on rare occasions, the no-nonsense taskmaster, Godoy (Diego Rincon).
Pulido takes his time with the storytelling, cutting between scenes of hard labor and “recognition therapy” sessions in the prison camp — “I confess I’m a thief, conman, bandit, murderer and drug user,” one prisoner says to the group — and flashbacks where we see Eliú and El Mono committing the crime that brought them there. While we don’t initially understand what happened on the night of the killing, we do get to know two boys who have fairly opposing personalities: whereas Eliú is stoical and scarred by his past, El Mono is a rebellious wiseguy with few regrets about his acts.
By far the most arresting sequence in The Pack takes place early on, when Eliú and El Mono are taken by officials to confront the family of the man they murdered and help them locate the dead body, which was hidden in a cave. It’s a tense moment where we get a glimpse into how Colombia deals with young criminals — no older than 14 or 15-years-old, in this case — for whom hard drug use and homicide seem to be a common occurrence.
It’s in such scenes where you can see all the research Pulido put into his project, which benefits from its grounding in real-world calamities. But it’s not enough to carry a film that moves rather predictably forward at a snail’s pace and suffers from low-energy amateur performances. Pulido’s choice to work with non-actors yielded several interesting, highly cinematic faces, but they fail to carry the weight of a plot whose power dissipates even if a few decent twists — involving the suspicious Alvaro and his insistence on self-confessional remedies — are added during the third act.
The Colombian-French co-production was skillfully lensed by Balthazar Lab (The Heroics), although the insistence on night shots doesn’t help a film whose tone is already rather dark and languid. A premiere in the Cannes Critics’ Week will give The Pack international exposure and additional festival bids, with French theatrical guaranteed.
Director, screenplay: Andrés Ramírez Pulido
Cast: Jhojan Estiven Jimenez, Maicol Andrés Jimenez, Miguel Viera, Diego Rincon, Carlos Steven Blanco, Ricardo Alberto Parra
Producers: Jean-Etienne Brat, Louis Chicoteau, Andrés Ramírez Pulido
Cinematography: Balthazar Lab
Production design: Johanna Agudelo Susa
Editing: Julie Duclaux, Juliette Kempf
Music: Pierre Desprats
Production companies: Alta Rocca (France), Valiente Gracia (Colombia)
World sales: Pyramide International
In Spanish
86 minutes
