BEASTS OF NO NATION 27
The soldiers surrender and are taken into custody by UN troops, leaving the
Commandant alone and raving. Afterwards, the battalion’s boy soldiers are sent to a
missionary school in a safe area. Haunted by what he has done and experienced,
Agu shies away from the other children, who are carefree and innocent. Eventually
Agu confesses to Amy, the school’s counselor (Gifty Mawena Sossavi), that he has
seen and done “terrible things” and is afraid she will think he is “some sort of beast
or a devil,” but also says that he once had a family and that he was loved. In the final
scene Agu decides to join the other boys as they swim and play in the ocean.
Reception
After paying $12 million for the movie’s distribution rights, Netflix si mul ta neously
released Beasts of No Nation on its streaming platform and in selected theaters the
weekend of 17–18 October 2015. The theatrical release was to allow the film to
qualify for Oscar nominations, but it received none (though it did earn many other
awards, including an In de pen dent Spirit Award). The movie also bombed at the
box office, earning only $90,777 for a two- week run in 31 theaters, a not- unexpected
result insofar as Netflix subscribers could more con ve niently watch it at home—
and many did; Netflix subsequently reported 3 million views among its 50 mil-
lion members. For the most part, Beasts met with critical acclaim, with reviewers
describing the film as “chilling,” “ultra- violent,” and “hard to watch” but also “hon-
est,” “eye- opening,” and “power ful.” Some critics, however, found the movie too
relentlessly graphic while lacking in real depth: “Cary Joji Fukunaga’s artistry reg-
isters less as psychological imprint than as a mea sure of his professional bona
fides” (Gonzalez, 2015). Others noted that the film’s power tends to dissipate by
its third act: “We march through pillage and rape, and the Commandant tightens
his power through abuse of his youthful charges; meanwhile, the film itself, supped
full of horrors, begins to sicken and dwindle” (Lane, 2005).
Reel History Versus Real History
Canadian Lt. Gen. Romeo Dellaire, former commander of the UN Assistance Mis-
sion for Rwanda (UNAMIR) during its genocidal civil war in 1994, judged Beasts
of No Nation too simplistic: “It’s the classic Blood Diamond story of disaster in Africa
but it doesn’t give an analy sis of the situation. There was a lot missing. I’m not
against the film. Cinema is an extraordinary tool [but] I think the film could have
done more to show the indoctrination of the children, and the psychological battles.
It needs to be more nuanced than just African kids with AK47s” (Alexander, 2015).
Helen Morton, director of advocacy for War Child, an international children’s war
relief agency, further notes that the movie’s exclusive depiction of boy soldiers
obscures another real ity: “Forty per cent of child soldiers are girls, and few films
ever portray that. Girls are combatants— and in growing numbers. They are forced
to do things that are beyond even a child’s imagination, and often recruited as sex
slaves” (Alexander, 2015). A related criticism, voiced by Zeba Blay, is that the movie
reinforces popu lar ste reo types of Africa as a monolithic “site of misery and pain”
(Bl ay, 2015).