How do you make a film about the tragedy of child soldiers in Africa? There have been documentaries on the topic, but the subject matter is so devastating it seems to preclude a dramatization that would be bearable to watch.
“Beasts of No Nation,” based on a novel by Uzodinma Iweala, is such a film. It’s hard to watch, as expected, but also compelling. There’s no phony uplift or redemption offered, just a set of character studies and a clear vision of how violence sustains itself.
Our central character is Agu, a 12-year-old boy (though he looks younger) in an unnamed African country.
He is played by a first-time performer named Abraham Attah, whose remarkable presence and gravity have much to do with why we keep watching this movie.
With his country caught in a war between an authoritarian government and ruthless rebels (and possibly other factions), Agu sees his family wiped out. On the run, he is seized by a fighting unit of the rebel forces.
The group is made up partly of children. Their leader is a charismatic spellbinder known only as the Commandant, played by Idris Elba. He dominates through intimidation but also through his strange, shaman-like power to inspire. He is the devil, but—as we see in later scenes—he is also a cog in the rebellion’s own bureaucratic structure.
We follow Agu’s journey from terrified innocent to hardened killer. No punches are pulled. This is a movie that depicts brutal hand-to-hand executions at the hands of children, and director Cary Joji Fukugana does not leave anything out.
Fukugana (who, after making indie films, gained some fame last year as the director of Season One of “True Detective”) also adapted the screenplay. It’s a blunt experience, artlessly made except for one hallucinatory sequence in which the traumatized Agu seems to see an altered world in rancid colors.
At 137 minutes, this is a lot of brutality to absorb, and I’m not sure the film has solved that problem. But it has made a subject come to life, and that’s saying a lot.
In particular, the character of the Commandant is an unforgettable portrait of seduction and terror. Idris Elba (late of “Pacific Rim”) gives the kind of completely transformed performance that serves as a reminder of why we look to actors to illuminate certain corners of the human experience.
The Commandant will haunt your dreams, and he should.
“Beasts of No Nation” (3 stars)
A brutal study of a 12-year-old African boy (Abraham Attah) forced to become a child soldier. The movie is a lot to endure, but it is compelling, and Idris Elba’s performance as a spellbinding, terrifying rebel leader is astonishing.
Rating: Not rated; probably R for violence, subject matter
Showing: Seven Gables theater, and on Netflix
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