Beasts review
A car packed with women and small children drives away. Its rear window bears the message: “God is a consuming fire,” framed with blue flowers.
The words and the attention to detail in the scene set the tone for the entirety of Beasts of No Nation, the latest from director Cary Fukunaga (True Detective, season one) and the first feature film made by Netflix.
Running just past two hours, the film was released Oct. 16 in a limited-theater opening and made instantly available on the streaming platform.
The story of a child soldier in an unnamed African civil war is stunningly portrayed. Shot in Ghana, the scenery has plenty of variation. The beauty found in nature presents a sharp contrast with the gruesome acts of war committed on the screen.
Fukunaga plays with light, frequently silhouetting soldiers with assault weapons and bullet belts against wild yet elegant natural backdrops. Children carrying ammunition boxes trudge past waterfalls and men toting machine gun pieces are framed against bright flames in the distance.
Abraham Attah, in his first role, plays Agu, the narrator and protagonist. He’s 15, but appears much younger than that. Attah portrays Agu’s fragile resilience with grace. Some of the scenes are so heavy, it’s easy to see the actor wasn’t acting so much as reacting — the subject matter is enough to affect anybody.
After Agu’s city is taken and he loses his parents, he is captured by a battalion of rebels under the command of the Commandant, portrayed by Idris Elba (Thor). The Commandant is the group’s father figure, shepherd, commanding officer and spiritual leader. The manipulative tactics he employs are remarkable, and while the audience can see them happening, they can feel them working.
Although Elba is playing an evil man, it’s impossible to not be drawn to him. He plays on the things the soldiers hold close: power, women and, in Agu’s case, God.
One of the most fascinating things to watch is Agu’s spiritual journey. His parents raised him a devout Christian, and throughout the film the audience hears his inner dialogue with God. The Commandant twists and perverts his soldiers’ idea of God until in the end, Agu’s inner thoughts are only directed at his mother. Yet God was the flame driving the soldiers onward.
When at last Agu stops believing, the fighting stops.
The ending is not a happy one, though the little narrator lives. He is in a safe place, looking for a way to move on from the things he’s seen and done. He asks a therapist how he’s able to do so, because inside he’s a monster. He battles drug withdrawal and likely PTSD.
The question is whether Agu can ever live like a child again or if the damage that’s been done to him, destruction of absolute power similar to that wrought on the surrounding land, will mark him forever.
Even in its intensity, Beasts of No Nation serves to remind the audience that life goes on, and even amid violence, beauty can be found.
