It’s hard to truly imagine what war would be like first hand, especially through the eyes of a child. The Netflix original film “Beasts of No Nation” comes closer to accurately portraying this better than any other film before it.

The film follows a pre-teen child named Agu as he fights to survive after losing his whole family to the civil war raging in the unnamed West African country in which he lives. Agu also acts as the narrator throughout the film, giving the audience a third person perspective.

Early on in the movie, Agu’s mother flees his village accidentally leaving him behind with his father and brother. Shortly after, Agu’s father and brother are executed but Agu escapes into the forest. From this point on the boy struggles to survive as he is lost and alone. Enter the Commandant played by Idris Elba.

The Commandant takes Agu in and makes him a soldier almost immediately. He tells Agu that the people he is killing are the people that killed his parents. Agu learns quickly and kills many people and also gets addicted to very dangerous drugs.

You will have to watch the film yourself to find out the fate of young Agu. The one thing I feel can be taken away from the film is the fact that war turns you into an animal despite who or what you are, child or adult.