This is a hard, harrowing movie to watch, but it’s also incredibly affecting and stunningly well-done. If it were up to me, the film would be swimming in Oscar nods. As I said earlier, it really seems like the sort of movie the Academy would adore, and in this case, it would wholeheartedly deserve all the love it could lavish.
For young Agu, the war in his country was once a far-off abstraction. Now, however, he’s lost most of his family, and the rest is lost to him. Alone, wandering, and starving, he is “rescued” by a rebel army who elects to make him one of them. Torn between his horrors at the brutality of war, his need for his strange new “family,” and the corrupting influence of his deceptively-charismatic Commandant, Agu fights to survive in what his world has become.
For me, the most powerful thing about this film is that it’s not all abject horror and misery. That sounds really strange, but it’s true. As he becomes a child soldier, yes, Agu is terrified, guilt-ridden, and running on pure survival instincts. He commits horrible atrocities, sees his friends die, suffers abuse, and is used as an expendable pawn in someone else’s war. There’s no question that his situation is monumentally terrible. But it’s not all terrible, which is part of what makes it so dangerous. After seeing his father and brother killed by soldiers, the rebel army becomes an outlet for Agu’s grief and anger. His fellow soldiers become his brothers, and there are times when he feels strong, enfranchised, needed. That’s the insidiousness the runs through all the undisguised monstrosity. The Commandant feeds and clothes Agu, trains him, gives him a sense of purpose, and, the way he tells it, saves Agu’s life. Agu is raised on the Commandant’s propaganda – taught to love his war and crave his approval. In these moments where it isn’t blatantly horrific, the Commandant and the rebel army worm their way into Agu. This, just as much as his fear of surviving on his own or being despised as a war criminal by any stable community, is what keeps him from escaping. I give the movie so much credit for getting this, that the psychological damage runs even deeper than the trauma and horror that’s already there.
Idris Elba has, quite understandably, been getting most of the film’s attention for his dynamic performance as the Commandant. As horrible, as self-serving, as manipulative as he is, you can see exactly why Agu and the other boys/young men would be drawn to him. (It’s totally the sort of alluringly-complex villain role that Christoph Waltz would get Oscars for.) As Agu, Abraham Attah makes a breathtaking film debut. Agu’s world is one that most people, blessedly, will never experience, but in Attah’s hands, there’s no sense of distant, removed suffering. Instead, Agu’s confusion, terror, and turmoil feel real and immediate, his character achingly specific. Attah also beautifully sells the antithetical feelings warring within Agu. I really, really hope we see more from him. Additional shoutout to Emmanuel Nii Adom Quaye, who plays fellow child soldier Strika. Without a single line of dialogue, he creates a richly compelling character whose relationship with Agu is one of the highlights in a film crammed with knockout moments.
Warnings
Extreme violence involving children (including graphic battle scenes, executions, and implied sexual abuse,) additional war violence and sexual content (including rape,) language, drinking, drug use, thematic elements, and disturbing images.
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