Ein Drama, das auf den Erfahrungen von Agu basiert, einem Kindersoldaten, der im Bürgerkrieg eines unbenannten afrikanischen Landes kämpft.Ein Drama, das auf den Erfahrungen von Agu basiert, einem Kindersoldaten, der im Bürgerkrieg eines unbenannten afrikanischen Landes kämpft.Ein Drama, das auf den Erfahrungen von Agu basiert, einem Kindersoldaten, der im Bürgerkrieg eines unbenannten afrikanischen Landes kämpft.
- Regie
- Drehbuch
- Hauptbesetzung
- Nominiert für 1 BAFTA Award
- 31 Gewinne & 59 Nominierungen insgesamt
- Village Constable
- (as Ricky Adelayitor)
- Pastor
- (as Fred Amugi)
- Paramount Chief
- (as Ernest Abbequay)
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Its about a kid who loses his family to war then is forced to join the mercenaries. We watch his transformation from an innocent child into a soldier as he questions his own actions and trying to survive.
This is a methodical depiction of the brutalization of a childhood. Idris Elba has a commanding powerful presence. The kid is an appealing performer. That's why his corruption is so demoralizing. It's a harsh, heart-breaking movie. It's a Netflix movie that is cinematic in quality. The plot is pretty simple and the kid's journey is relatively straight forward. Fukunaga delivers an unflinching look into this slice of the world.
The story follows this young boy, Agu, as he becomes deeper and deeper involved in the rebel army under the wing of the Commandant, played by Idris Elba. Both of these performances are simply excellent. Elba is often terrifying as the warmongering troop leader, and his unnerving performance is key to making this such an unsettling and disturbing film.
However, even Idris Elba is outshone by the stunning performance given by the young Abraham Attah, who plays Agu. Attah does a brilliant job at showing his character's transformation over the course of the story, from an innocent young boy to a hardened warrior in one of the most brutal wars on the planet.
This ties in perfectly, then, with the main theme of the film, which is all about the way that war destroys innocence entirely and replaces it with only doom and despair. In that, you can see that this is clearly an anti-war film, but it fortunately doesn't present itself so much as that, only giving you its powerful message if you concentrate hard enough and look for the details telling you about the destruction that war has brought to this place.
I say that because this film is, on the whole, not the most fast- paced, and if you watch it with your brain turned off, you'll likely be bored, because it's quite long, and hasn't got much action at all, it's the power and emotion of the underlying themes that provides the horrifying punch that makes this so compelling and upsetting.
Cary Joji Fukunaga's directing is also stunning. As well as making a simply beautiful film to look at, the way he directs every scene works brilliantly in tandem with whatever the film is trying to say. There are so many astonishing long shots of individuals' faces, particularly focused on Agu, and they just have such an incredible emotional power when you really look deep into their situation.
Abraham Attah's performance as a young boy who has clearly been through hell is of course integral to making that emotion clear, but the inventive and beautiful directing really aggrandises that feeling of total despair and loss of innocence, which is why this film is just such an incredible one to watch.
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- WissenswertesCary Joji 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.
- PatzerWhen Preacher confronts the Commandant to say that he is leaving, the Commandant calls him Two I-C, who died earlier in the story.
This is not necessarily a goof. Two I-C is a rank (Second in Command), not a name. When the first Two I-C is killed, presumably on Commandant's orders, Commandant needs to delegate a new deputy leader and chooses Preacher. This is why Preacher's decision to leave carries such weight, and why he later opts to return to the bush.
- Zitate
Agu: I saw terrible things... and I did terrible things. So if I'm talking to you, it will make me sad and it will make you too sad. In this life... I just want to be happy in this life. If I'm telling this to you... you will think that... I am some sort of beast... or devil. I am all of these things... but I also having mother... father... brother and sister once. They loved me.
- SoundtracksIlluminati
Written by Michael Owusu Addo and Joseph Anthony Bulley
Performed by Randy Aflakpui, Abdul Mumin Mutawaki, Emmanuel Osei
Top-Auswahl
Details
Box Office
- Budget
- 6.000.000 $ (geschätzt)
- Bruttoertrag in den USA und Kanada
- 90.777 $
- Eröffnungswochenende in den USA und in Kanada
- 51.003 $
- 18. Okt. 2015
- Weltweiter Bruttoertrag
- 90.777 $
- Laufzeit2 Stunden 17 Minuten
- Farbe
- Seitenverhältnis
- 2.39 : 1