Beasts of No Nation

Beasts of No Nation (2015) is Cary Fukunaga's war drama, available to watch online on iFILM. Somewhere in West Africa a civil war is tearing the country apart, and a boy named Agu loses everything in a single day.

His father is killed at a checkpoint. His mother and sister vanish. Then a rebel unit finds him, and a charismatic warlord played by Idris Elba turns the frightened child into a soldier. Newcomer Abraham Attah carries the film as Agu, aging years in the span of a few scenes — learning the machete, the ambush, the trick of not crying. Fukunaga shot on location in Ghana and operated the camera himself, so the jungle feels close, humid and dangerous.

The movie premiered straight on Netflix, one of the platform's first films to break into the major festival circuit, and Elba's commander earned a string of acting nominations. There is no comforting ending here, which is exactly why it stays with you. Stream Beasts of No Nation (2015) online on iFILM.