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Beasts of No Nation
Based on the experiences of Agu, a child fighting in the civil war of a 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.
2015 · Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga · 137 min · Drama · War · Screenplay in the scene database · 29 frames
Tagline
Child. Captive. Killer.
Plot
A young boy, Agu, lives in a small West African village with his parents and siblings, located within a "buffer zone" enforced by ECOMOG troops. The village is informed that the government has fallen and that military-aligned rebels have seized control of the country. With rebel forces headed toward the village, many people flee to the country's capital for safety. Agu's father buys safe transport for his wife and two youngest children, but has to stay behind with Agu and his eldest son. Rebel and government forces fight in and around Agu's village. While the rebel soldiers flee, government forces round up the remaining villagers and execute them, but Agu escapes into the jungle.
After wandering for a while, Agu is caught up in a guerrilla skirmish. The Native Defense Forces (NDF), a rising rebel faction in the country, adopt Agu into their ranks. Agu's battalion is led by the Commandant, who takes Agu under his wing. Following a brutal initiation process in which Agu hacks an innocent captive to death with a machete, Agu becomes a fully fledged member of the militia. Agu befriends another young NDF child soldier, Strika, who never speaks. One night, the Commandant summons Agu to his quarters and rapes him. Strika, another of the Commandant's rape victims, comforts him. Preacher, an older soldier, gives Agu brown-brown to lift his mood. Agu and Strika take part in a number of bloody battles and ambushes. During one of the raids, Agu, under the influence of brown-brown, mistakes a villager for his mother. He exclaims that he has found her and clings to her while the other members of the group declare that they want to rape her. The woman does not recognize Agu, and he calls her a witch woman. Agu then shoots the woman while she is being raped.
The battalion's many victories earn them a summons to the rebel headquarters, where the Commandant, accompanied by Agu, Strika, and a few other soldiers, goes to meet with the NDF leader, Dada Goodblood. Goodblood, who stresses the importance of public image in the wake of the conflict becoming world news, denies the Commandant his promised promotion to General and removes him from command. The Commandant's lieutenant, Two I-C, will take control of the battalion, and the Commandant will be made Deputy Chief of Security under the leader. The Commandant views this as an insult and leaves to "celebrate" with his men at a brothel. While the adult soldiers spend the night with the brothel's women, one of the women shoots Two I-C. Two I-C accuses the Commandant of orchestrating the incident before dying, while the Commandant insists it must have been a botched attempt against himself. The prostitute professes that it was an accident, but the Commandant and his men shoot the women and leave the city.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Cary Joji Fukunaga
- Cinematography: Cary Joji Fukunaga
- Edited by: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, Pete Beaudreau
- Music: Dan Romer
- Production design: Inbal Weinberg
- Produced by: Riva Marker, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Idris Elba, Cary Joji Fukunaga
Cast
- Abraham Attah as Agu
- Idris Elba as Commandant
- Emmanuel Nii Adom Quaye as Strika
- Opeyemi Fagbohungbe as Sergeant Gaz
- Emmanuel Affadzi as Dike
- Richard Pepple as Father Friday
- Ama K. Abebrese as Mother
- Kobina Amissah-Sam as Father
- John Arthur as Angry Bush Taxi Driver
- Kurt Egyiawan as 2nd I-C
Production
- Country: Brazil, United States of America
- Language: Akan, English
- Studios: Participant, Red Crown Productions, Levante Filmes, Mutressa Movies
- Budget: $6,000,000
- Box office: $9,077,700
- Themes: guerrilla warfare, civil war, based on novel or book, africa, refugee, machete, drug use, jungle, child soldier, west africa
More by Cary Joji Fukunaga
On this film
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