The Whistleblower - Movie Report (iulia Maria Ion).docx

Iulia Maria Ion E18033009 Current Issues in International Relations (SBU1702)

Beasts of No Nation. Movie Report Beasts of No Nation (2015) tells the story of a young 12-year-old boy, Agu, who lives together with his family in an unnamed country in West Africa. The first part of the movie portrays his pleasant life, where he goes to school, has fun with his older brother and bargains with soldiers in exchange for food. However, this equilibrium is interrupted by war and he is soon parted from his mom and witnesses the murder of his father and brother by government troops that accuse the people left in the town of supporting the insurgency. Agu manages to escape into the forest, but soon is captured by NDF, a rebel faction led by a man called the Comandante. The Comandante leads the army and soon becomes a major influence in Agu’s life, who is made to kill innocent people and do horrifying things on behalf of NDF. The man manipulates the boy, who lacks a paternal figure in his life, and convinces him easily. All the boys and young men that fight are given heroin and other drugs, in order to keep them able to focus and murder. As time passes by, the group realizes that victory is impossible, in spite of the support that The Comandante receives from the political faction he is fighting for. The fighters surrender, leaving their leader behind. Because country of action is an unnamed one, the movie focuses on Agu and his dehumanisation and childhood loss, obliged to fight as a man for a cause he doesn’t know anything about, after everything has been taken away from him. The film emphasizes the survival, the child solider, not the political situation itself, but the struggle and atrocities that Agu has been through. At the end of the movie, Agu is able to achieve an insight into what happened to him while he is speaking to a teacher, making it obvious that he is fully aware of the things he did. All of the important scenes are shot in a brutal, explicit manner in order to shock the public and make people feel the horror and hate that is present, aiming for psychological portraiture and focusing on universal human dignity over political context. The movie lacks specificity regarding the political situation. However, it is thought to portray the war that happened in Liberia and Sierra Leone during the 1990s, a conflict that tore the subregion apart for years and is still recovering. The director must have decided to refuse to turn this into a political statement and focus on the psychological impact war has on soldiers, especially young boys. As stated above, regarding the international issues directly addressed, Beasts of No Nation is that one movie which is the most abstract. There are no hard facts about we know that happened in history, everything is fictional. Thirteen Days and The Whistleblower are movies that tackle specific conflicts of real events. The closing scene, the one where Agu runs swimming into the sea with the other boys, leaves the audience unsure of the protagonist’s future or the aftermath of the events.