Abraham Attah
“BEASTS OF NO NATION” My rating: A-
137 minutes | No MPAA rating
To the small handful of brilliant movies about the madness of war — among them “Apocalypse Now” and the Soviet “Come and See” — we must now add Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “Beasts of No Nation,” a ghastly but hugely moving story about child soldiers in an African civil war.
In this sobering feature — a Netflix original that is also being booked into theaters — we never do learn the nationality of Agu (Abraham Attah), our young protagonist. Only that he lives with his family in a demilitarized zone where civilians are safe from the violence that swirls around them.
But their sanctuary doesn’t last long. Soldiers — apparently they represent the central government — show up to do a bit of cleansing. Agu’s mother and younger siblings have already fled to the big city, but now he watches as his unarmed father and older brother are gunned down.
The boy races into the bush, living like an animal. Then’s he’s captured by a band of rebels led by Commandant (a hypnotic Idris Elba) and slowly indoctrinated into their martial ranks.
Commandant is the only adult in sight. His next-in-command is a teenager and most of the troops under him are mere children playing soldier. It’s like “Lord of the Flies”
with machine guns.
But Commandant is a charismatic leader for whom his “men” would do anything. So when newbie Agu is ordered to execute a captive with a machete, he obeys. Reluctantly at first, and then in a frenzy as the lust to kill takes over.
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