With a release pegged for this coming Friday, Netflix has peeled back the curtain on the riveting final trailer for its upcoming war drama, Beasts of No Nation.
Written and directed by True Detective‘s Cary Fukunaga, few of the online giant’s original films have garnered as much attention as Beasts, what with the Idris Elba-fronted picture drawing praise at both Venice and Toronto during this year’s festival circuit. It’ll take inspiration from the gripping, award-winning novel of the same name by Nigerian scribe Uzodinma Iweala.
Starring up-and-coming actor Abraham Attah as a frightened young boy caught between the crossfires of a brutal civil war, Beasts of No Nation is turning heads for its unflinching approach to child soldiers and the savageness of one deadly Commandant (Elba). Taking Attah’s orphan under his wing, Elba’s warmonger twists the young boy into a killing machine, learning how to fire a weapon, the ins and outs of guerrilla warfare, and how to blur out any emotions when faced with adversary.
Partaking in his blood-thirsty massacre, it isn’t long before Attah’s untainted character is left questioning the fine line between good and evil and right and wrong. Powerful themes, no doubt, and when you consider the haunting aesthetic that Fukunaga was able to achieve during the inaugural season of True Detective, Netflix subscribers could be in for something truly special.
Beasts of No Nation will open for a limited release on Friday, October 16 in the States. It’ll also be made available on Netflix the same day, and you can get the jump on Fukunaga’s latest foray behind the camera by checking out our own impressions from TIFF 2015.
