Son of Monarchs

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.

A rare movie where the human and non-human worlds intertwine to create a rich, visual tapestry of migration, love and loss.

I love movies that combine strong narative elements with sound and realistic scientific facts. Alexis Gambis did this successfully with the fly Room when he told the story of crazy but brilliant scientist Calvin Bridges---he does it again with in his second feature, Sons of Monarchs, which incorporates the themes of immigration, family ties and the sense of belonging. Strong performances, especially from Tenoch Huerta and the other Mexican actors.

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!

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.