Son of Monarchs

Threading the needle between metaphor and the scientific method, this unique film lyrically plumbs the science of butterflies to explore the existential dilemma of immigrants who leave home to pursue their dreams and the threat of the modern world on nature and indigenous worldviews and systems of belief. Hard to categorize, the film is unexpected, elusive, enigmatic. Tenoch Huerta's intense minimalist performance is a revelation, like a Latin American Brando. There is magic in the world even in laboratories, and this film will help you see it.

Son of Monarchs, is a touching story that explores the constant deaths and rebirths of life. The film goes all about duality: Past and present, here and there, evolving or staying the same. Strong presence and performance from actor Tenoch Huerta, accompanied all of these concepts, when incarnating Mendel - a successful scientist who is at the same time a sensitive and beautifully vulnerable character ( even against his own cultural beliefs and limitations).

Through the lenses of a microscope - director, Alexis Gambis -- exquisitely reveals to the audience not only the details of the monarch's butterfly wings, but also, the intimate details of Mendel's personality disorders and childhood traumas. Then, the lenses zoom out and the film goes macro into strong social issues like immigration and difficult family relationships.

Son of Monarchs, is a creative film with beautiful images and script which through the protagonist's passion towards monarch's butterflies unwittingly exposes subjects like self recognition and self empowerment.

Highly recommend it!

If someone has to explain the movie to me, not my kind of movie; all the people reviewing this film, please, let me have whatever you're drinking while watching this movie!!! I like Tenoch Huerta, and I really wanted to like this film, but after 55 mins into it, I'm giving up. It's a very slow film, with no point to it, goes everywhere with no particular order, subject or character that you may be interested in. Sometimes, directors want to get so artistic and do something no one's ever done before, they forget people are watching their films and we want to know what we're watching, seriously. Save your time, I have 55 mins wasted, I will never get back.

Starting with flashbacks from childhood, two brothers emerge from childhood, markedly different. Trauma, guilt, stories, histories, unspoken truths, lead to different lives, both marked by the past. How they move forward in life and in their family comes to unfold, much as the metamorphosis that is studied by one brother. Lyrical, leisurely, mystical, elegant. A flight of fancy well told. Time well spent.

Son of Monarchs is a unique, authentic, creative, and a relatable film. It reflects on the issue of immigration, but also engages in a wider conversation about identity, social pressures, culture and the strangeness of the world that we live in today. As a viewer it elicited an inner personal response in me, which I think any viewer that had once questioned how our real world functions will connect to. In my view, one of the best things about this film is that its so relatable, plus it is filled with amazing creative footage and acting performances! Highly recommend it