The film does a good job depicting the brutal process of African youth being converted into child soldiers, not only in this un-named West African nation, but probably throughout all of Africa. The film does not shy away from depicting the sickening barbarism of war, and the aimless cycles of revenge that keeps it going. Viewers should be warned when watching this film. What blew my mind the most about this film was the speech made by the African warlord toward the end of the film as his soldiers are abandoning him. I have *absolutely no sympathies* for this character, but I feel his speech hit it on the head not only for veterans of this historical fiction conflict, but for US Veterans as well (minus the war crimes). In my opinion, I feel that the US has some of the absolute poorest attitudes towards its veterans when compared with many nations in the world. What you see in the US is absolute insincere, shallow, fakery in terms of its public 'support' for veterans (my opinion). Also, the speech made the by main character, a child soldier, during his therapy after he surrendered, could not have said it ANY better for US Veterans....COMPLETELY different circumstances between the wars of US Veterans and the rebels depicted in this movie, yet the final realities for both veteran groups are depicted in similar and disturbingly accurate ways. Brian Ghilliotti

A film about political and civil unrest in Africa (the specific country is never named) and as heartbreaking and terrifying as you'd imagine. Wonderfully made, the camera work puts you right in the centre alongside these people having their already tough worlds torn apart. It's not easy to watch, the depiction of callous disregard for life, especially seen through the eyes of a child is often too much to bare. As if that's not harrowing enough, what follows is beyond horrific. Incessant killing, exploitation of children, power hungry people with complete disregard for life and any moral standard. In all the confusion it's not always obvious who the real monsters are. As the film goes on though, is seems everyone is and as things escalate, it's hard to except that despite this being dramatised, it's no doubt based on a sad harsh reality. Elba is frighteningly good, so much so, you wonder if you were able to reach into that world, would you kill him and become a monster too. Abraham Attah, who plays Agu, the child who leads us through this brutal world is amazing. This is his first outing and it's quite incredible, I've no doubt he'll go on to even greater things (although he's signed up for a Spider-Man film). The music is the only true positive element of the film itself, be it the traditional stuff or the ethereal score, it's outstanding, but never masks the turmoil of the characters and their existence.

I watched this on Netflix (where it exclusively available). It's the story of a child soldier fighting a civil war in an unnamed African country (filmed in Ghana). It's terrific. It features two wonderful performances. One from Idris Elba, as the commander of the boy soldiers, transforming them from children to killers; he's terrifyingly charismatic, and really makes you believe the relationship between him and his chargers. The second is from Abraham Attah as the boy at the heart of it all, taking us on a mesmeric and heartbreaking journey. Horrifying as it is, we are spared many of the real horrors of war whilst still letting us feel the impact of the atrocities on both victims and perpetrators. The cinematography brings the colours of the bush to life, the dust almost seeping under your fingernails as you watch; the music is beautiful and, along with the almost at times poetic script, this both offsets and points up the horror of events portrayed. It's a brilliant and urgent film, without a white saviour in sight, which Netflix (who put up the money for the production when it was threatened with going under) are to be commended for taking a risk on it. The reasons for it being overlooked in awards is obvious and twofold - endemic racism in the film industry and fear of the future as a streaming service trumps the film's very limited cinema release. If you have Netflix, search it out; if you don't, it's one of many good reasons to fork out for a subscription.

The Netflix movie, Beast of No Nation, directed by Cary Fukunaga, is about a young West African boy named Agu. The specific setting is unknown, but it is somewhere in Africa. Agu lives in a village that is protected by Nigerian soldiers. Since it is a buffer zone, many things are run down, so there is no schooling. The families inside are suppose to be safe, however the village gets ambushed by rebels. Unfortunately, Agu's father and brother are executed by the rebels. Agu manages to escape into the forest just to be captured by another rebel group. He will later be brainwashed and become a child soldier for the Native Defense Forces, NDF. The director's background includes a couple of movies and a TV show. He is definitely qualified for motion picture production since he has won a Primetime Emmy along with 25 wins and 22 nominations. The budget he had to make this movie was 6 million dollars. This movie's settings were realistic because it was shot in Ghana. SInce there was not many special effects needed for this film, viewers got a great visual for how these West Africans lived and what they went through. Although the places the movie takes place are beautiful, the conditions many of the people lived in are horrible. The village Agu was in at the beginning of the movie was rundown and dirty with lots of garbage around. On the outskirts, refugees would surround the village pleading their way to get in. There was not a lot of money to be made inside the village, so the kids made a buck where they could. For example, Agu took apart the shell of the TV in order to try and sell to someone in the village. Another way Agu and his brother made a few dollars was by purposely blocking the roadway and making people pay to get by. These two examples show how rough it was for kids to be living in this village because there is simply no schooling and money. One of the camps that the commandant and the others started for themselves was extremely unhealthy. One of the promises of the commandant was to give the kids better than what they had. Instead the kids were left digging trenches and cleansing themselves with muddy water. The living condition was not the worst thing for the boys though. It was the fact that they were child soldiers brainwashed to fight and kill who they were told. The movie does a great job with these scenes, especially with the acting from the kids. Agu definitely did a great job persuading the audience that he went through a mental change from the commandant. After the brainwashing, Agu's attitude toward everything changed. He turned into a soldier. One example of is true change was when he killed an innocent man. This shows how he was manipulated into thinking he was doing the right thing, but in reality he was turning into the type of person that killed his father and brother. Since this movie is not strictly based off of a true event, rather based on general true information, it is hard to know what the purpose of the film really is. One way to look at why it was made is how it portrays the brutality children went through during these war times in African places. Also, there really is not any factual or historical errors in this film. This is because there is no answer to base the movie off of. This movie was produced by Netflix, a company famously known in the United States. This can show who the movie movie was made for. It was made for the audience of the United States because that is the audience it is mostly targeting. Overall, the movies overall filmmaking and performance of the actors was top notch. The sequence from the beginning to the end was very clear and fluent. The acting from the commandant was excellent. This is because he plays the strong leader during a war while being able to be somewhat of a "father figure" to the kids. For a child, Agu's actor did a great job narrating and acting out the different emotions of his character from when he was with his family to when he was a soldier. In conclusion, this is a great movie to have have open ideas as to what is the true events it is based off of because there is no backstory to it.