Beasts of No Nation is a 2015 American war drama film written, co-produced, shot, and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga.

Shot in Ghana and starring Idris Elba, Abraham Attah, Ama K. Abebrese, Grace Nortey, David Dontoh, and Opeyemi Fagbohungbe, the film is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala,[4] the book itself being named after a Fela Kuti album.

It was screened in the main competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival,[5][6] where Attah won the Marcello Mastroianni Award.

Elba's performance earned nominations for the BAFTA, Golden Globe, Spirit, and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor, winning the latter two.

A young boy, Agu, lives in a small West African village with his parents and siblings, located within a "buffer zone" enforced by ECOMOG troops.

While the rebel soldiers flee, government forces round up the remaining villagers and execute them, but Agu escapes into the jungle.

The Native Defense Forces (NDF), a rising rebel faction in the country, adopt Agu into their ranks.

The battalion's many victories earn them a summons to the rebel headquarters, where the Commandant, accompanied by Agu, Strika, and a few other soldiers, go to meet with the NDF leader, Dada Goodblood.

The younger members of the battalion are sent to a missionary school in a safe part of the country, while Preacher and Randy decide to run away to rejoin the war.

Eventually, Agu tells the school's counselor that he has done some terrible things, which he fears will make her see him as a "beast".

[4] On June 6, 2014, Ghanaian actors Ama K. Abebrese, Grace Nortey and David Dontoh joined the film.

[16] The costumes for the child soldiers were inspired by the uniforms of the Kamajors, who wore fabric patches on their shirts as a form of protection.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Beasts of No Nation finds writer-director Cary Fukunaga working with a talented cast to offer a sobering, uncompromising, yet still somehow hopeful picture of war's human cost.