Beasts of No Nation is a new film which began streaming on Netflix on Oct. 16 with a simultaneous cinema release.
Incredibly cinematic for a film made on a tiny budget of $6million, the film starts with the young protagonist Agu (played astonishingly well buy newcomer Abraham Attah) living in a UN protected buffer zone providing safe haven for the refugees from the civil war of an unnamed African country.
The swift decent into the chaos of war is brilliantly heart-breakingly portrayed by director Cary Fukunaga – producer/director of the excellent first series of “True Detective”
Agu is “rescued” by a rebel NDF force led by Idris Elba’s terrifying Charles Taylor-esque Commandant.
In scenes of barely watchable brutality and coercion reminiscent of Apocalypse Now crossed with Lord of the Flies Agu is turned into a rebel freedom fighter.
Throughout the film the UN forces are shown as a ghostly impotent presence, there but not really there, unable or unwilling to intervene.
The film documents unflinchingly Agu’s life as a guerilla fighter.
Not an easy watch but a gripping heart breaking film nonetheless –
Highly recommended
Eat see hear Cardiff 