The film is set in an
unnamed African country and tells the story of a young boy named Agu (played
brilliantly by newcomer Abraham Attah). A coup is held and the whole country
falls into chaos. His mother and younger siblings flee, but Agu, his father and
his brother are forced to stay behind. Soldiers of the new government soon
attack the village and kill Agu’s father and brother and while Agu is fleeing, he is captured by rebel forces. The rebels are led by an enigmatic leader
simply known as The Commandant played by Idris Elba. The Commandant submits Agu to a
grueling training and slowly strips away at his innocence to turn him into a
child soldier in his army.
Idris Elba has had an
impressive career known for movies like Pacific
Rim (2013) and Prometheus (2012) as well as for
TV shows like The Wire and Luther, giving incredible performances
in almost everything he does, but this is possibly his best performance to
date. In most films like this The Commandant would be turned into a cruel man
who forces his soldiers to do terrible things simply because he says so, but
Elba makes him seem caring and portrays him as a father to his soldiers; they
follow him not out of fear, but out of respect and love. Idris Elba always
exudes this strong sense of power and he uses it well here. He stands out on
the battlefield and, while everyone else ducks and flinches as bullets fly past
him, he hardly moves--a bit reminiscent of Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now (1979). His charisma is equal
parts tender and cruel, which is what draws Agu and the other young soldiers to
him. Equally brilliant is Abraham Attah as Agu, who does an incredibly
convincing job of showing the development of his character as he is submitted
to war, violence, murder, rape, sexual abuse, drugs and starvation. He goes
from childlike innocence to murderous to disillusioned and yet is somehow still
able to bring some hope to the story through a monologue at the end. This is the
type of performance that would be near impossible for an experienced actor to
pull off, which makes Attah’s performance that much more impressive.
Of course great
performances are nothing without a good script and direction, and luckily Beasts of No Nation was written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre and the first season of True Detective) who finds a great balance of showing enough
violence and horror to draw you in and help you understand the hell
Agu is living in without taking it too far. Even in the few scenes where it
seems violence is treated nonchalantly, I think it is
attempting to show Agu’s disillusionment toward violence. The topic of child
soldiers is an intense one; there aren’t many people who would be willing to
take it on, and there are even less that could do it well, but Fukunaga took up
the challenge and succeeded.
It’s an interesting
choice by Netflix to release this as their first film as it’s not attempting to
draw in the average viewer and it’s a pretty controversial subject. The movie has received a lot of flak for depicting Africa as a war zone filled with monstrous
men, when in reality it is actually largely peaceful, which is an understandable
complaint. I wish there were more films that showed the peaceful side of
Africa, but at the same time I think it’s important to not forget that stuff
like this is happening every day in some countries. The film
isn’t trying to say men like this only come from Africa. Men like this have
come from every country including America. They are bred out of anarchy and
chaos and simply want to create more. They kill because they can and take
everything for themselves. They have no nationality or creed. They are hardly
even men anymore; they are beasts of no nation.
Review By: Ben Ritter
Rating: 4.5/5
