‘Beasts of No Nation’ tests same-day Netflix, theater release

It’s easily the film’s most brutal sequence, but more than being gruesome it’s troublingly resonant emotionally, a rare feat for filmmakers today. “My heart sunk a little bit because I thought, ‘Does no one want to buy this film, and put it in theaters?”

Beasts of No Nation is more than an answer to a trivia question.

Beasts of No Nation is in United Kingdom cinemas and will be available on Netflix from 16 October.

There has never been a war movie like “Beasts of No Nation”. “That doesn’t mean the value of the film is lost watching at home, it’s just not as powerful an experience”, he says.

It took him 10 years to get the film made.

For those who don’t know, Beasts of No Nation is based on the book of the same name written by Uzodinma Iweala.

“It was a tremendously complicated, problematic, unlucky production”, Fukunaga says.

“It’s a compliment but I always get told, ‘Oh, you’re handsome”.

Fukunaga and others got malaria.

The crew had no weather forecasts, so they didn’t know when rain was going to last for 20 minutes or all day.

Throughout the seven-week shoot, Elba largely stayed in character as the warlord whose ragtag militia indoctrinates boys into rampaging and killing. And the extras, every time they saw me they [would salute] “Yes commander”. It’s a film about the real cost of war, and few portraits have been this unflinching and unforgettable. Garnering much hype for a lengthy, unbroken tracking shot that confirmed his run on the aforementioned HBO series as one of the most groundbreaking directorial achievements of this “golden age” of TV, there are many long sequences here, including a bravura tracking shot involving a raid led by Agu.

“The first thing I did when we wrapped was fly to Ibiza and DJ”.

“On the page he’s a despicable character, but there were qualities about him”, he mused.

Perhaps it’s because we need movies that are as shocking as Beasts of No Nation.

Elba calls the deal “a sign of the times”. Part Kilgore and part Kurtz, Commandant directs his troops through this particular Apocalypse Now of indiscriminate warfare, a charismatic figure who nonetheless has a taste for bloodshed and expects his child soldiers to exhibit the same. It certainly helped the film’s profile. And now, Netflix may have just given the film world a true game changer. Despite a limited theatrical release across the United States. Beasts of No Nation will be screening in 19 different U.S. markets making it eligible for the Academy Awards. It suggests Netflix will bankroll films that Hollywood might not. As his town becomes a battleground in this conflict, Agu watches his mother and younger siblings speed away in the crowded front seat of a barely functioning getaway vehicle.

“It’s a through-the-looking-glass”, Fukunaga says.