This is a brief review of the 2015 Netflix film,’ Beasts Of No Nation.’ The director of the movie is Cary Joji Fukunaga, and the genre of the movie is war, drama.
The lead in the film is a boy named Agu, played by Abraham Attah. Other stars in the film are Idris Elba, Kurt Egyiawan, and others. The total runtime of the film is 137 minutes, and it was made on a total budget of $6 million.
Agu lives in a small village of a west African country. The name of the country is unspecified; the only detail given is that a civil war is breaking out, and people are leaving the village and moving towards the capital city for safety. He has a family of 5 members- Father, Mother, an elder brother, and 2 younger siblings. When Agu’s family heard the news of civil war, they too tried to move to the capital city, but Agu’s father could arrange transport only for his wife and 2 youngest siblings. He, along with Agu and eldest son, had to remain behind. The fight between the military-aligned rebels and government forces start around Agu’s village.
For now, the fight was won by government forces, but they killed innocent villagers, considering them rebels. In these killings, Agu’s father was dead, but before dying, he told both of his boys to run to the Jungle and don’t stop. Unfortunately, Agu’s brother also gets killed when they both tried to escape. Agu wanders for a long time before he was found by NDF. NDF is also a rebel group, whose leader is called as, ‘The Commandant.’
There in NDF, Agu meets a boy whose name is Strika, and he is reticent in nature. He wonders, ‘Why is he so quiet?’. One night, the Commandant calls Agu to his room and rapes him by telling him that he must take care of him, as all sons must care for their fathers. Strika, who shares a similar experience, consoles him. Now, both Agu and Strika goes in many ambushes together and are the most valued soldiers of the Commandant. Gradually, NDF rises to power by killing hundreds of men, taking away towns. After their recent success, they finally get to meet the NDF leader, ‘Dada Good blood.’
The Commandant is now very sure that he will be promoted to higher ranks after his battalion’s recent success. But, to his surprise, he is demoted, and his lieutenant Two I-C is made the battalion chief. The Commandant sees this as an insult and heads directly to Brothel to celebrate his lieutenant promotion. The whole battalion except Agu and Strika spends the night with Brothel’s women. Suddenly a gunshot is heard, and Two I-C is seen severely injured. Although it’s not mentioned, I feel he was killed by planning done by the Commandant. The Commandant and his battalion blame the prostitute for murdering him, so they shoot her and flee.
After killing Two I-C, the rebel leader sends his men behind the Commandant. So, now Commandant and his men are running from his own people. Also, they are running from government forces, the UN, and the ECO MOD. So, to find a safe place, the Commandant and his men find shelter in a goldmine. They hide there for several months. In between this period, many of their men die in ambush strikes by government forces. They are low on ammunition, and they have nothing to defend themselves from an attack. Agu informs the Commandant about the situation, but till then, the soldiers fed up with all this leave their post and abandons him. The Commandant tries to stop them, but when Agu says the same, he agrees. The remaining members, including Agu, decide to surrender to the UN troops.
Shortly after they abandon their chief, they are detained. The younger ones among them, including Agu, are sent to schools, somewhere safe in the same country. In school, we can see Agu remains very quiet and doesn’t indulge with other kids very much. He gets nightmares about what he had done.
In the ending scene, he is seen talking to a counselor and confessing that he has done some terrible things. He doesn’t want to tell in detail because he is afraid that the counselor might think of him as a ‘beast.’
A great war movie and tells us how war can change lives. A boy who was to study and enjoy his childhood was killing people at the very same age. I would highly recommend it if you love war, movies. Agu’s acting stole the show here.
