"Agu" (Abraham Attah) is a young lad who witnesses at first hand the violence that is sweeping his rural community and with his family and village decimated by marauding bandits, he finds himself under the command of a man who is as brutal as he is shrewd (Idris Elba). He knows how to instill a culture of fear into his new recruits and he also knows how to weed out those whom he deems too weak or too squeamish from his army of newly indoctrinated children. Quite quickly, the shock that initially affected "Agu" begins to become tempered by his own inate survival instincts, and he is soon wielding a machete and a Kalashnikov like the rest of the older boys - for whom life means little and the struggle all. I think quite sensibly for Cary Joji Fukunaga, he's avoided naming the country or, indeed, the leader of this squadron - indeed the very lack of names attributed to many of the characters as we progress through this wartorn land does a lot to effectively present us with quite a dehumanised experience. These are children who ought to be in school and playing - not being taught how to strip a rifle, plant a land mine or take a sword to the head of another human being; yet "Agu" is but one of a supposed 100,000 in West Africa recruited, forcibly, to fight for a cause. This isn't just a depiction of murder and destruction, though. This is also takes a look at some of the less questionable reasons why these kids remain loyal to the cause. They learn to feel a sense of purpose, of being needed and wanted. Many are no longer hungry or abandoned and for the first time some do feel like they have a family that relies on them as much as they do it. The visuals are captivating - both in human terms and in terms of showing us the astonishing and indiscriminate damage that modern weaponry can inflict; and it also shows us that power, adrenalin and rapid-fire guns often go hand in hand at the expense of thought, right or wrong. The assembled cast, especially the youngsters, deliver something harrowingly plausible here - as does an Elba who exudes a flawed sort of menace that made me think that perhaps his own character was "acquired" in similar circumstances to "Agu", but it's that most personable effort from Attah that shows a confidence that belies his young years and really draws us in. This isn't an easy film to watch, but it's tale of the weaponisation of children makes it a compelling one.
