I didn't participate in the last contest because no movie readily came to my mind, even though I'm sure I have watched quite a lot of movies that made me sleepy. Seeing as I'm a very critical and somewhat impatient person, it's not so easy for me to be impressed by a movie, but seeing as I'm little invested in watching, I usually almost forget much about them as soon as I watch them.
So, for me to remember a movie that meets this, then it must have really wowed me. My choice of movie today os Beast of No Nation
It's based on a novel by Uzondinma Iweala. It tells the story of war and conflict and the human cost of it all. It follows a young boy called Agu (Abraham Attah) whose family is forced to go separate ways for fear of impending conflict. When the conflict does finally get to their town, they are summarily accused of being opposing fighters. This led to the summary execution of his father, grandfather and brother. He luckily and narrowly escaped.
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On his own with no clue as to what to do, he finds himself captures by the very rebels his family had just been accused of supporting, hence murdered. He's taken under the wings of a senior rebel as instructed by their commander who soon made Agu his beloved.
The more time Agu spends with the rebels, the more he learns to think and live like them. He becomes a vicious killing machine, all the while keeping a little of his humanity, enough to remember and keep hoping to reunite with his mother, and give the victims of his atrocities a quick end. He's forced to become an adult quickly while still retaining the childlike longing for his mother and the things kids do.
The most impressive thing about the movie and Abraham Attah is that the movie unlike most we see these days didn't seek to create an opinion for you. The movie didn't seek to point out antagonists and protagonists. It simply focuses on telling the human cost of wars and conflict and how we are drawn into it, and made to keep perpetuating it without recusing our choice or will or our humanity. Abraham Attah was extremely impressive in the way he stepped into his role and gave it a genuine human touch and feel, not encumbered by stereotypes, cliche and the need to differentiate good from the bad. His ability to keep playing the role of keeping his childishness somewhere below the surface while doing things meant for the vilest and least innocent of adults is uncanny.
There was a genuineness to how he delivered his character; like he lived that life. He immersed himself in it and just let himself feel it all. It was astonishing to see how effortlessly he played the role of a unifier between the command and the rank and file, not to mention being a source of strength and much-needed conscience to both sides, even in the dance of the abuse suffered at the hands of the commander's perversive desires.
If there's one thing about Idris Elba, it's the ease with which he steals the spotlight, even when not in a lead role, but somehow, Abraham Attah was able to hold his own against an Idris Elba supporting role. He so convincingly elicited the right emotions with the way he played his role, that you couldn't ask for more.
When I look at how good he was at that role, I'm forced to say it has something to do with being an African. The average African is forced to learn to be an adult even as a kid, and that helps Abraham Attah in delivering the role so well. I think the producer did a perfect job in picking an actor from the right demographic, age range and skill to deliver like that. Picking an older actor would have resulted in a character who would quite have not been so good at bringing out the childlike and humane side of Agu, and a younger actor would have led to a miserly performance about the complexity of his existence in a conflict situation.
This movie helps me reevaluate my understanding of good and bad, as well as how easily conflict can bring out the animal instinct in us, temporarily shutting our humanity. I loved how it shows that the life choices of the weak are indirectly made for them by the strong in every society, whether the strength is derived from a gun, money or position.
It was really easy for me to pick this movie because it holds a lot of significance for me. In a way, it seems like telling the history and pain of so many Africans who have suffered in the face of one conflict, oppression and repression or other, since the beginning of colonialism till date. It's also quite educating about the human condition, as well as how power politics tends to drive the lives of people towards things and places they would eventually be blamed and punished for by those in power (of any sort; government or otherwise.).
Overall, this movie was a hit in my opinion and I would recommend it to anyone.
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