Beasts of No Nation: The Casualties of War

Beasts of No Nation (based on the novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala) is a story about a young African boy who is caught up in a war and becomes a child soldier. Therefore, it is not an easy film to watch. However, it is a beautiful and powerful film to watch, anchored by brilliant performances from its lead actors and featuring the always stunning cinematography and vision of director, Cary Joji Fukunaga.

Abraham Attah stars as Agu, a young boy who lives with his family in a small West African village. As the war makes its way to their borders, they make plans to flee to the capital. Agu's mother leaves with his younger siblings, leaving him behind with his older brother, father, and grandfather. Unfortunately, it is too late for the men to escape. Agu is forced to flee while his male relatives are all shot by the army and he is discovered in the bush by the rebel Native Defense Force. They first threaten to kill him, but once they discover his backstory, they enlist him as a child soldier, someone who would be willing to enact his vengeance against the army that killed his family.

The NDF is led by the Commandant (Idris Elba), a charismatic and fierce battalion leader who believes in barbarically initiating his new recruits and setting them upon the road to bloody violence. Throughout the movie we get Agu's voiceover, a reminder that this is a mere child who has been trapped into committing horrific atrocities. Despite the murders he commits and the horrors he witnesses, he never becomes inured to this life, always praying that he will be reunited with his mother, but despairing of what she will think of a son who has committed so many sins.

Attah offers a magnificent performance, ensuring that Agu retains a veneer of childish innocence despite the increasingly horrific acts that he is subjected to. Elba is terribly wonderful, ensuring you never feel an iota of sympathy for the Commandant but still feel the force of the magnetism that has charmed so many men into following in his brutal wake. Written, directed, and shot by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the movie is surprisingly beautiful despite the brutality it depicts. And perhaps that's the point; that in this ethereal and lush setting, so much destruction and malice is being wrought by human beings.

Beasts of No Nation shines a light upon the many horrors of war but is particularly concerned with the tragedy of child soldiers. These young boys lose their families and their childhoods, and the physical and psychological trauma they undergo is unimaginable. While the movie and the novel might be fictional, the circumstances they portray are very much a reality of wars that are currently taking place across the world. This movie is not interested in portraying war as a rah-rah Hollywood fantasy being fought by brave young men who volunteered for combat. It shows us what war truly is: a ruthless, relentless, foolish act of hubris that destroys the beauty of the world.