Slightly taller than the pipsqueak other, the shrewd, sincere boy on the right evaluates the participants. [4] On May 17, 2014, Participant Media, along with Mammoth Entertainment, came on board to co-finance the film, initially budgeted at $4.3 million but which ultimately cost about $6 million. Which African conflict is 'Beasts of No Nation' based on. Cary Joji Fukunaga, With this one Netflix proves that their originals are one of the best nowadays. Take the concentrated yellow, a hue associated with happiness and optimism, that we see in the village, and the way that color disappears after Agus mother and sister depart and the NRC arrives. Based on the book of the same name, it tells the story of a 12-year-old boy named Agu in a nameless West African country torn apart by civil war. When civil war tears his family apart, a young West African boy is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters and transform into a child soldier. Then he comes upon some armed and dangerous boys about his age or slightly older, their hats and torsos bedecked with camouflaging vegetation (a very "Lord of the Flies" image, pushed maybe a bit too hard) and then we're into the main story, which finds Agu being protected and trained by a man known only as The Commandant (Idris Elba). Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. Agu and other children in the battalion are raped by the Commandant in return for small tokens. Get info about new releases, sales, and our online publication, Current. As Agu is forced to leave his childhood behind, he reminisces about the past: his family, his love of reading and school, his dream of becoming an important doctor, and how he used to read the Bible every day. They kill Commandant and leave. The children of Germany Year Zero and Johnny Mad Dog do not articulate their feelings regarding their debased environments. A new nurse at a hospital begins to suspect her colleague's desire for attention may be tied to a series of patient deaths. . Maternity leave is over and it's time for these four moms to return to work while navigating kids, bosses, love and life in modern-day Toronto. Daniel Crown, enlisted by a unit of the Native Defense Forces (NDF)a rebel militia [10][14][15] The film was shot at locations in Koforidua and Ezile Bay at Akwidaa. Genre: Attah shoulders the weight of Agus unfathomable experiences with an impossibly light touch. etina (cs) Deutsch (de) English (en) . Now on the run from their own faction as well as their enemies, the battalion suffers heavy losses. By creating an account, you agree to the Cary Joji Fukunaga, Producer: After wandering for an unspecified amount of time, Agu is caught up in a guerrilla skirmish. Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. It's also a dive off the cliff for Netflix, which acquired the movie for a whopping $12 . A steely special ops agent finds his morality put to the test when he infiltrates a crime syndicate and unexpectedly bonds with the boss' young son. The audience can thus view the heinous crimes they commit as being brought about solely by situation or place. Theatrical Release", "Did Film Director Rip Off Photographer Richard Mosse? Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head: Season 2, Link to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 5, Link to Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Link to RT25: Celebrating 25 Years of Rotten Tomatoes, Link to Betty Gilpin & Co. on Deciphering, War, Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Jurassic Park Movies Ranked By Tomatometer, RT25: Celebrating 25 Years of Rotten Tomatoes, Betty Gilpin & Co. on Deciphering Mrs. Davis, Weekend Box Office Results: Super Mario Sets Record in Its Second Weekend, Beasts of No Nation finds writer-director Cary Fukunaga working with a talented cast to offer a sobering, uncompromising, yet still somehow hopeful picture of war's human cost. I actually think most Americans think Africa is one country, Fukunaga once candidly noted. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. The NRC (National Reformation Council), a fictional cold-blooded The website's critical consensus reads, "Beasts of No Nation finds writer-director Cary Fukunaga working with a talented cast to offer a sobering, uncompromising, yet still somehow hopeful picture of war's human cost. "Beasts of No Nation" wasn't just a high-stakes, death-defying production for its cast and crew. The book had its roots in the author's creative writing thesis at Harvard. Stay up-to-date on all the latest Rotten Tomatoes news! Your Ticket Confirmation # is located under the header in your email that reads "Your Ticket Reservation Details". A child and a killer. Starring as the child soldier at the center of Netflix 's first original feature film, Beasts of No Nation, first-time actor Abraham Attah has received critical acclaim for his performance. Agu's family belongs to a particular group that ousted the people who are now trying to take over the country (or as they might put it, take the country back). We're telling stories." The shabby army surrounds him, hanging on his every word like raindrops on leaves as he implores the young to seize their own wealth, to remember that this unit is an unbreakable familywords that will take on the added sinister cast of grooming in light of the sexual abuse we learn about later. The film received several Academy Award nominations. Agu then shoots the woman while she is being raped on a bed. It looks like you're offline. In one captivating scene, the Commandant proclaims: We will take that fucking bridge. He works himself into a dripping sweat, chanting the children and other soldiers to ecstasy, leaning his head into their chests, willing them to invincibility. 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 . While the soldiers (except for Agu and Strika) 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. In this stunning debut novel, Agu, a young boy in an unnamed West African nation, is recruited into a unit of guerrilla fighters as civil war engulfs his country. Agu hides with his family in a neutral zone between warring . Down on his luck, Ariel longs for a different life. These films take their cues from an established and ongoing Western literary tradition wherein the exotic continent, supposedly populated by beasts and brutes, requires white eyes to peer into and reveal its mysteries. Iweala does not shy away from explicit, visceral detail and paints a complex, difficult picture of Agu as a child soldier. Based on a true story. In voice-over, he explains, simply, Our country is at war. But war has not collapsed the sunny, Elysian immediate surroundings of these two preadolescent onlookersyet.Agu (Abraham Attah) is a good boy, mischievous and resourceful. would recommend. Based on the same-titled novel by Uzodinma Iweala, a Nigerian doctor and sociologist who began the story as a thesis project at Harvard, the movie immediately puts us in the shoes (and sometimes bare feet) of its hero, eight year old Agu (Abraham Attah). This is a film that came out of no where.delivers an experience Ill never forget. Amy Kaufman, He finally found a fruitful new entry point for his child-soldier script after reading the Nigerian American author Uzodinma Iwealas playfully poetic 2005 novel Beasts of No Nation, and he spent nine years painstakingly and faithfully adapting the book. He thinks about where to put people in the frame, how to light them, and how to move the camera, not merely to tell the story and showcase the dialogue and performances, but to boil a moment down to a single image, like the shot of Agu and his family hiding from invading soldiers in a shed, the passage of enemies outside indicated by the way that the light streaming through bullet holes in the door flickers as men pass by. Agu's battalion is led by the Commandant, who takes Agu under his wing. The scene concludes with Dike (Emmanuel Affadzi), Agus best friend, bursting through the television shell, 3D-style, and with Agu almost blushing after the successful barter of the TV. When Agu meets the bare-chested, beret-wearing Commandant, a seeming father figure to the cultlike ragtag army, the leaders second-in-command (Kurt Egyiawan) comments that Agu is just a boy. The camera pulls back, revealing the shell of a television set. Consider the way breaking broadcasts reduce the bountiful history of the continent to a countrys worst moments; the only sense of locality offered is a barrage of alphabet-soup-named factions. Oct 17, 2015. The nightmare of war is seen through the eyes of one of its most tragic casualtiesa child soldierin this harrowing vision of innocence lost from Cary Joji Fukunaga. While the rebel soldiers flee, government forces round up the remaining villagers and execute them, but Agu evades capture and escapes into the jungle. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga Writers Cary Joji Fukunaga Uzodinma Iweala Stars Abraham Attah Emmanuel Affadzi Beasts of No Nation, A Netflix Original Film. Learn more about our use of cookies and information. Haunted by his father's own death at the hands of militants, which he fled just before witnessing, Agu is vulnerable to the dangerous yet paternal nature of his new commander. In fact, he is, at points, valiant. 2015 | Maturity Rating: 16+ | 2h 17m | Military Movies. The director did a great job on here. As does Fukunagas prominent use of color. Fukunaga didnt take on this heavy subject lightly. It is with these sad Drama, Bleecker Street Media, After graduating, he took a short script that centered child soldiers to New York Universitys film school, and continued researching and working on the project there and, on and off, for years afterward. Go behind the scenes of Netflix TV shows and movies, see what's coming soon and watch bonus videos on. His untrusting glare; his swallowed, knowing eyes in his young boys body; his words to describe a prying counselor (I am like old man and shes like small girl)it is clear he is ready to move on, to live. During an inspiring speech that the Commandant gives to his troops in the mountains shortly after Agus arrival, Fukunaga uses a static single camera angle to capture Elba, perched with a cane, atop a rock. You're almost there! Too much of this kind of thing, and you might start to wonder if the filmmaker's virtuoso inventiveness is overwhelming his commitment to realism and attention to context (none of Agu's fellow soldiers are developed to the point where you really grieve for their deaths or are disgusted or angered by their atrocities). Copyright Fandango. The final section of the film, which sees Agu witnessing the limits of The Commandant's power and starting to see through him, is probably the strongest; Elba, who has a magnificent glowering magnetism throughout "Beasts" but never relies on it exclusively, is never more fascinating than when The Commandant's seeming omnipotence is whisked away like the curtain which reveals that the great and powerful Oz is just a man. He had studied Central and West African conflicts, and specifically the Sierra Leone Civil War, as an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the 1990s. Feb 6, 2017, Box Office (Gross USA): Follows Agu's journey as he's forced to join a group of soldiers. And then comes the question, maybe, of what, exactly, is being communicated in "Beasts of No Nation," beyond the fact that a boy has been horrendously traumatized by being conscripted and taught to torture and kill? They spout slogans, but it's clear that the slogans are less a justification for horrific violence than a pretext that gives them permission to do what they might have done anyway, in their imaginations, or on dark stretches of road in whatever part of the country they originally hailed from. In a bloody initiation, the commander forces him to kill an unarmed man. This chance meeting sends Agu on a harrowing, The woman says not to recognise Agu and he calls her a witch woman. The writer never experienced the events he writes about in his novel unlike other books in the same genre.[6]. In 2015, Artnet published an article suggesting that Fukunaga had appropriated content without crediting the work of Irish artist Richard Mosse,[25] whose work used infrared film and depicted child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fukunagas choice to preserve the subjectivity of Iwealas novel and do without the benefit of the doubt afforded by a supposedly objective camera opens up fascinating terrain. As they teach him to hold his own in the war and kill, the raw human emotion begins to leap off the screen. After that, you might realize that the Western commercial cinema almost never tells stories of Africa, except to sentimentalize European colonalism ("Out of Africa," "An African Dream", "The Ghost in the Darkness") or show the depths of depravity of which Africans are capable ("Hotel Rwanda," "The Last King of Scotland," this). All three projects put on display Fukunagas trained eye for dangerous, sublime landscapes populated by, as Egner notes, broken striversand the same potent components also crop up in Beasts of No Nation. His father is shot to death. However, after having lived through a bloody guerrilla war, the Bible no longer holds any meaning for him. Idris's character also goes through his stages on this one too just like the kid. Idris Elba, Writer: A vast community of chimpanzees thrives in a forest in Uganda, navigating complex social politics, family dynamics and dangerous territory disputes. Agu and Strika take part in a number of bloody battles and ambushes. Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, "Participant Boarding Idris Elba-Starrer 'Beasts of No Nation', "Idris Elba To Star In Cary Fukunaga-Helmed 'Beasts Of No Nation', "Venice Film Festival: Lido Lineup Builds Awards Season Buzz Full List", "Venice Fest Reveals Robust Lineup Featuring Hollywood Stars and International Auteurs", "LIVE: The winners of the 72nd Venice Film Festival", "Toronto to open with 'Demolition'; world premieres for 'Trumbo', 'The Program', "Ama K. Abebrese, Grace Nortey and others join Idris Elba in Beast of No Nation Movie", "Cliff Martinez to Score Cary Fukunaga's 'Beasts of No Nation', ""'We're not saving the world. When civil war tears his family apart, a young West African boy is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters and transform into a child soldier. There is magnificent use of shadow and silhouette throughout, and small details (such as the red clay on Agu's feet as he kneels in supplication, and the rhyming shots of boys carrying other boys on their backs) that seem poignant or mysteriously pitiful, in the manner of great photojournalism. A child and a killer. Instead he tells of how he used to be a good boy from a family who loved him. Released in 2015, "Beasts of No Nation" was Netflix's first original movie -- that is, the first movie distributed by the streaming service. The book does not give any direct clue as to which country it takes place in, and it remains undisclosed. Shot in Ghana and starring Idris Elba, Abraham Attah, Ama K. Abebrese, Grace Nortey, David Dontoh, and Opeyemi Fagbohungbe, the film is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala,[4] the book itself being named after a Fela Kuti album. This review is from Beasts of No Nation [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [2015]. Agu, the precocious, gentle son of a village schoolteacher father and a Bible-reading mother, is dragooned into an unnamed West African nation's mad civil wara slip of a boy forced, almost overnight, to shoulder a soldier's bloody burden. When civil war tears his family apart, a young West African boy is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters and transform into a child soldier.. Composer Dan Romers synthesizer roars, blood spatters across the lens, and the frame slows to devour Agu and his new friend Strika (Emmanuel Nii Adom Quaye) as their blades gnash the prisoner to bits. A support group of five quirky strangers try to move on with their lives after breaking up with their respective exes. He lives with his family in an unnamed West African country (though the film was shot in Ghana), in a buffer zone protected from the bloody conflict by Nigerian soldiers. The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. 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