Understanding the "beasts"

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2016)

This movie is about child soldiers in an un-named African country, and it manages to show both the horrors of (civil) war and the beauty of Africa at the same time. Its biggest achievement is convincingly showing the human side of kids who end up doing horrible things in war. Despite seeing them being brutally violent, you are also able to recognize them as victims.
The performances from everyone involved are fantastic. A lot is said by the expressions of these kids, and it's not hard to believe that the movie cast people who had been involved in a civil war like this. Idris Elba does a great job playing a terrifying character, that could easily have been overplayed by a lesser actor.
I also very much liked how the movie doesn't really have a character that serves as a moral compass. Abraham Attah's character is obviously not happy with everything, but one of the points of the movie is that these kids don't initially choose this life, but rather end up in it due to circumstance.