Film Review: "Beasts of No Nation" (2015).

"Child. Captive. Killer." This is Beasts of No Nation. This American-Ghanaian war drama film adapted and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, and based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala. 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.

For six years, Fukunaga had been conducting research on the Sierra Leone Civil War, until he came across Iweala's novel. Despite some creative liberties, Fukunaga ensured that the dialogue remained faithful in form to the novel, originally written in a lighter form of Nigerian Pidgin English known as Krio. In late August 2013, Idris Elba was cast. By early June 2014, Abraham Attah, Ama K. Abebrese, Kobina Amissa-Sam, Emmanuel Nii, Adom Quaye, Kurt Egyiawan, Jude Akuwudike, Grace Nortey, David Dontoh, and Opeyemi Fagbohungbe rounded out the film's cast. Fukunaga cast real former child soldiers and members of the various factions from the Sierra Leone and Liberian Civil War such the Liberian Armed Forces, the LURD, and the CDF as extras and consultants but they ran into difficulty getting everyone onto the set in Ghana because they were held up in the Ivory Coast as suspected mercenaries. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place throughout Ghana. The film was shot digitally, the first for Fukunaga, on the Arri Alexa XT cameras. Fukunaga wasn't meant to be the director of photography. However. after the original DP injured his arm before the shoot, it was decided to not get a new DP but for Fukunaga to do it himself. Fukunaga based the look of the film on the work of photojournalists. Some scenes are reminiscent of the work of photographer Tim Hetherington's coverage of the Second Liberian Civil War, which was featured in the documentary Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington (2013). Fukunaga then coloured the film personally, basing the look largely off of 1970s photo-chemical film stock. The worldwide distribution rights were bought by Netflix for around $12 million; it was released simultaneously in theaters and online through its subscription video on demand service. Considering it a violation of the traditional 90-day window of exclusivity to theaters, AMC Cinemas, Carmike Cinemas, Cinemark and Regal Entertainment-four of the largest theatre chains in the United States, announced that they would boycott the film, effectively downgrading it to a limited release to smaller and independent theaters.

The film stars Elba, Attah, Abebrese, Amissa-Sam, Nii, Quaye, Egyiawan, Akuwudike, Nortey, Dontoh, and Fagbohungbe. Fukunaga and the cast waste no time with laborious explanations for the characters' motives.

Part harrowing war tale, part soldier story, this cinematic effort by Fukunaga is sensitive, insightful and deeply authentic. Though, the film will leave an acrid aftertaste, it's eloquent, elegant and utterly heartbreaking. Beasts of No Nation is one of the most exciting pieces of cinema we've seen in a long time.

Simon says Beasts of No Nation receives: