Beasts of No Nation

2015 "Child. Captive. Killer."
7.7| 2h17m| R| en| More Info
Released: 11 September 2015 Released
Producted By: Participant
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.netflix.com/title/80044545
Synopsis

Based on the experiences of Agu, a child fighting in the civil war of an unnamed, fictional West African country. Follows Agu's journey as he's forced to join a group of soldiers. While he fears his commander and many of the men around him, his fledgling childhood has been brutally shattered by the war raging through his country, and he is at first torn between conflicting revulsion and fascination.

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Reviews

ada the leading man is my tpye
Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!
mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
dbradley-64894 I lived in Sierra Leone. To me, the story borrowed from the Charles Taylor catastrophe that wracked that beautiful country. I feel that the director took the pidgin English too far. The longer the movie went on the more irritated I became. I'm sorry to say that by the time it was finished I was of the opinion it was a racist hatchet job by a Western director. It even had me questioning why Idris Elba put his name to this.On the bright side, the acting performances were good to excellent. The cinematography was often top class too. Just a shame that the movie was undermined by stupid decision to overuse pidgin English.
nancydion-39501 This movie is EPIC. I cannot stop watching it. The mixed feelings, pain, hurt, perfect reflection of our society how did we get here?. Humans need to learn how to love one another truly. Idris is such an amazing actor the way he fits into character is indescribable...i cannot believe he didn't get an academy for this.
msantos1116 The movie starts out following a typical middle-class family living in a small village in what appears to be West Africa. The movie then expands the context and shows us that the town is in the middle of a battle between the corrupt and violent United Nations backed government forces and the ragged pack of rebel fighters. As the peaceful townspeople decide to ship away women and children to allow the men to stay back and fight, there is no room for some of the younger boys, so they are also to stay behind. Agu, the film's protagonist, ends up witnessing the United Nations backed government forces senselessly execute all of his family members that remained in the village. Fortunately, Agu is able to flee these mentally disturbed, deranged, blood-thirsty, war mongering United Nations backed government forces as he runs deep into the bush.Now orphaned, Agu is on his own in the wild. It appears that he will have no chance of survival, as he can not even light himself a fire and is not sure of what he can eat. Fortunately, the story's hero, known as the "Commandant" (played by Idris Elba), has managed to save many other UN backed government created orphans. Commandant's crew of orphaned boys stumbles upon helpless little Agu. Much of the movie is related to how Commandant takes little Agu under his wing, teaches him survival, feeds him, clothes him, and allows him to exact his revenge on the evil UN backed government forces. Commandant is shown to be leading a pack of what appears to be 20 to 30 other boys and young adults, all presumably orphaned similarly to Agu and all with a thirst for revenge on those that murdered their families. Throughout the film, Commandant is first shown as a heroic warrior, then a wise leader, and then devolves into an ordinary human being. Although he is a true leader, he also answers to an authority. When he finds out that his authority cares more about political aspirations than providing justice, he tries to oust Commandant from his post. Commandant then goes rogue and takes his orphaned boy tribe with him. It is somewhat similar to Colonel Kurtz's situation in "Apocalypse Now", with the exception that Commandant does not really have a clue on how to lead a group of rogue dissidents.Ultimately, his orphans desert him due to lack of food, water, and hope. Commandant's demise can be attributed to the corrupt nature of war and the western world's political influences. Deep down, he was shown to be a genuinely good man, fighting for justice, all while being a protector and guardian of many orphaned children.Many will see this movie from a different perspective. One of the themes of the movie, which is something that plays out every day in real life, is that the subtle authoritarian rule of western governments is both the cause and solution to many of life's problems. First, they were directly responsible for the bloody and senseless murder of the families of many of these children. Secondly, as we see toward the end of the movie, these children are placed in a government-run school to learn and survive. Government creates the problems and then attempts to fix them. However, they did achieve their main goal. The villages they needed to eradicate are now gone, with all remaining residents under the guardianship of the state.This movie is a great example of how innocent lives are taken, families are destroyed, and entire communities are eliminated due to the military involvement of western societies. There is no doubt that this story is being played out for real in the Middle East and all over Africa due to both the United States' and many European countries' perpetual foreign intervention campaigns.
nagrinzone The film "Beast Of No Nation", directed by Cary Fukunaga, was set in West Africa and highlighted the popularity of children soldiers in the war. Agu and his family are off to flee to the country's capital, since the government is being run over by rebels, however on their way to escape, their family gets stopped by the rebels and Agu's family gets killed right in front of him. Agu then runs into the bushes and meets up with a rebel faction named NDF and he is trained to be a child soldier. From there, he and his rebel faction murder not only part of the country's military, but go on a killing spree through the country even when the people have done nothing wrong. When the Preacher becomes the new lieutenant, he recommends that all the soldiers surrender to the UN since they will either starve to death or be murdered, however the Commandment refuses to give up. Agu and the other child soldiers join the preacher in giving up and are sent to a missionary school, in which they receive food, shelter, and education.The movie was extremely well produced and really showed the effects of revenge and how the war scene that was taking place in Africa. The acting was phenomenal, especially the young children and how they presented their drainage of themselves after they have become young murderers, so to speak. The camera angles when they are killing the men and women are very impactful, especially in the scene where Agu makes his first kill along with another child soldier with a machete. When the boys are chopping the soldier's head in slow motion and the blood splatters onto the camera lens, it really emphasizes the brutality of the war and how these once innocent children were being introduced into blood thirsty savages. Overall, the film does an amazing job showing the inhumane conditions children and adults have to go through during the war and the effects it has on people in general.