Beasts of No Nation

Beasts of No Nation

Beasts of No Nation

A Netflix Original Film. 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. Available in select theaters and on Netflix October 16.

Plot summary

The novel is about a West African boy named Agu who is forced to become a child soldier. When war came to his family’s small village, Agu’s mother and sister have to leave on a bus, but Agu, his father, and a shoesman stay behind. They try to escape, but Agu’s father is shot and killed.

Agu hides and is soon found by soldiers, who coerce him to join their rebel force. In a bloody initiation, the commander forces him to kill an unarmed soldier.

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. He thinks about how he and his friend used to play at war and how this war is not the same. He fears that God hates him for killing others, but he soon forces himself to believe that this is what God wants, because “he is soldier and this is what soldiers do in war.” He befriends a mute boy named Strika, and together they face the crimes and hardships of war: looting, rape, killing, and starvation.

Agu loses track of time, understanding only that he was a child before that war but has become a man in a seemingly never-ending trial by fire. He wants to stop killing but fears that so doing will get him killed by the Commandant. During this time of war Agu and the army have very little to eat, so they eat what they can: rats, small game, goats, and sometimes other people. The food is not cooked enough for fear that others will see the fire, and the water is known to contain human feces. Agu and many other men in the battalion are forced to accept the commander’s sexual advances; Agu knows it is wrong but is afraid to refuse.

His wish to escape the army finally comes true when Rambo, the new lieutenant, shoots and kills the commander. Sick and exhausted, Agu and Strika join the disbanded soldiers to try to make their way home. Along the way, Agu’s only friend and confidante, Strika, dies, and Agu ultimately leaves his fellow soldiers.

In time, he comes under the care of a missionary shelter/hospital run by a preacher and a white woman, Amy. Agu gets new clothes and all the food and sleep he wants, and regains his health and strength. However, after having lived through a bloody guerrilla war, the Bible no longer holds any meaning for him. Amy invites him to share his thoughts and feelings, and Agu tells her he would like to be a doctor and save lives so as to redeem his sins. He also tells her about all of the evils he has had to commit during the war.