It was originally published in the 5th issue of "Watching Movies·Midnight Scene" in 2016, limited to the length of the magazine, I always feel that I have not explained it thoroughly, and I am quite unsatisfied:
From 2015 to 2016, the war film "Beasts Without Borders" directed by American director Kerry Fukunaga won 16 consecutive honorary awards or nominations in 9 film festivals or film awards in Europe and the United States. What this movie brings to the audience is not a fierce and popular battlefield audiovisual experience, but an extremely heavy topic-African child soldiers. Perhaps it is even more serious that it is the developed Western countries that are able to put this topic on the screen, rather than Africa itself...
The epitome of child soldiers without a kingdom
In 1989, Nigerian musician Fira Kouti wrote the music album "Beasts of No Nation". In 2005, Nigerian writer Uzodima Ivira published a novel of the same name. In 2015, the American director Kerry Fukuyong adapted it into a screenplay and put it on the screen.
Neither the novel nor the movie clearly stated the country in which the story took place, only that it was in West Africa. For the novelist, the national prototype is Nigeria. Fukuyong came across this novel while studying the Sierra Leone Civil War. The filming location of the film was in Ghana. In fact, these countries have experienced frequent wars. Since 1963, Nigeria has been in military power and frequent military coups for a long time, and it only formed a democratically elected government in 1999. The story background of the war movie "Tears of the Sun" is set to take place in Nigeria. In 1991, the civil war broke out in Sierra Leone, 50,000 people were killed in the war and 2 million people were left homeless. Sierra Leone only ended its civil war in 2002 and stabilized its political situation in 2014. The movie "Blood Diamond" is set in the Sierra Leone Civil War. From 1966 to 1979, there were three military coups in Ghana, and the democratically elected government was only established in 1992.
"No Nation" seems to be "no country", but it actually expresses the tragedy in the movie. It has been repeatedly staged in West Africa and even throughout Africa. Wars no longer have national restrictions and distinctions. The young Ghanaian actor Abraham Ataha has naturally and purely shaped the image of "Agu" with his talented acting skills. While winning the Best Emerging Actor Award at the 72nd Venice Film Festival, he also raised the heavy question of "African Child Soldiers". There are 300,000 child soldiers in the world, of which 120,000 are in Africa, accounting for 40% of the world. Africa is also the country with the highest growth rate of child soldiers in the world, and the average age of child soldiers is declining year by year. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Geneva Convention all prohibit or oppose the appearance of child soldiers under the age of 15 in war. However, in the war-torn regions of Africa far from the "civilized world", these international treaties or laws are nothing more than a dead letter.
Fukuyong combines the various elements and techniques of regular feature films, art films and documentary films, and brutally put the epitome of African child soldiers "Agu" in front of the world. This allowed the film to be widely acclaimed, with a score of 79 on the Metacritic website and 91% of the freshness of the Rotten Tomatoes website.
Props and killers
The filming of the film was coordinated by the Ghanaian military, and the props were all its active weapons and equipment.
The opening "Economic Community of West African States Ceasefire Supervision Force" (ECOMOG) is a real organization. In the movie, the Nigerian peacekeeping force in ECOMOG is equipped with a German HK G3 7.62 mm automatic rifle. Many foreign military enthusiasts and spectators have mistaken the white-painted vehicles they are equipped with as the WZ-523 infantry fighting vehicle imported from China by Ghana, which is the foreign trade model of the 92 infantry fighting vehicle. In fact, it was the Finnish Sisu XA-186 armored personnel carrier.
In addition to the HK G3, the government forces controlled by the "National Reform Commission" (NRC) are also equipped with the US M2HB type 12.7 mm heavy machine gun and the M1919A4 "Browning" type 7.62 mm heavy machine gun. Heavy weapons include the South African "Badger" Type 90 infantry fighting vehicle, the Swiss "Piranha" infantry fighting vehicle, the Spanish VAMTAC S3 assault vehicle imitating the American "Humvee", and the Soviet Mi-17 "Hippo" general purpose helicopter. In the film, there have been scenes of night air raids by government armed helicopters. This should be a special effect synthesized by a computer. Ghana has only imported one Mi-35 Hind helicopter from Russia. It is hard to imagine that this "baby" will be sent to make a movie.
The anti-government armed "Native Defence Force" (NDF) where "Agu" is located is mainly equipped with light weapons. In addition to the HK G3, the captured M2HB and M1919A4, there are also the Belgian FN MAG 7.62mm general purpose machine gun, the Soviet RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launcher and the Finnish M73 120mm mortar. Of course, the most equipped is the Soviet AK-47 7.62 mm automatic rifle and its improved version. Including AK-47 prototype, AKS-47 type, AKM type, AKMS type, Romanian imitation AIM type and AIMS type, and even extremely rare East German imitation-MPi-KMS-72 type.
The anti-government armed "PLF" is in a state of hostility to the NRC and NDF, and the weapons they are equipped with are similar to those of the NDF.
The United Nations peacekeeping force wears a blue steel helmet, marked with the word "UN", and is equipped with an American M16A2 5.56 mm automatic rifle.
Bloody killing
Judging from the props alone, the firepower of this civil war is too "pediatric". Fuyong's shots highlight the killing and bloodshed of this low-intensity local armed conflict. The most impressive is the fragment of the "Capital University Engineering Undergraduate" who instigated "Agu" to kill the captives by the "commander". Throughout the killing process, "Agu" never had any viewpoint. The use of the lens seems to be from the perspective of the "bystander", but there is no substitute in the film. The camera is almost "pressing" the audience, "forcing" it to witness the killing scene. The last is a slow motion shot from the back, substituting the perspective of the hacked "college students"-two children with indifferent expressions brandished machetes, and the plasma and minced meat on the blades were constantly thrown on the camera...
In fact, the two little actors were just throwing knives in their hands, making hacks and slashes. The bloody shots of metal blades and murders are made entirely of computer special effects. When filming this clip, a young actor couldn't help laughing, and all the young actors on the scene laughed together, and it was difficult to resume serious re-shooting. Later, the director showed some of the edited clips to the children. When the explosion scene appeared, all the children cheered. When the hacking scene appeared, all the children were silent.
In the scene of "Agu" rushing into the village to kill after taking psychedelic drugs, Fuyong used infrared photography technology. All the green in the lens turned into bright blood red to show the world that "Agu" saw after taking the medicine. This artistic method has caused Fuyong to fall into controversy. Irish photography artist Richard Moss claimed that this clip copied his creativity. In 2013, he used infrared photography to take a series of photos and filmed the documentary "The Enclave" (The Enclave), which reflects the child soldiers in the Republic of Congo. He said that Fuyong had contacted him and asked about infrared photography technology. However, he did not intend to sue Fuyong.
Wild africa
Spectacular battlefield audio-visual effects are often the most direct factor that audiences like war films. However, "Beasts Without Borders" can hardly make the audience have the pride of fighting the enemy bravely, or the sense of glory of the conqueror. The weapons in Africa have been modernized, but the humanistic spirit has almost remained in the primitive tribal state. Therefore, soldiers are everywhere in the movie-it is not a "civilized world" war without burning, killing and looting, but at least it will not be as cheap as Africa.
After "Agu" found out that he had misidentified the captured woman as the mother, he abused the woman's daughter with other child soldiers. These clips of children holding AK-47s madly trampling on girls are enough to make the audience of the "civilized world" dumbfounded. What is it that turns these innocent children into demons? Later, "Agu" shot and killed the woman who was being raped by "comrades-in-arms." It was probably at this moment that "Agu" gave up the idea of looking for his mother. He might have foreseen what might happen to his mother. What's more sad is that "Agu" himself has become the "plaything" of the pedophile "commander"...
The wildness of Africa is even more reflected in the battle scenes in Fuyong's lens. When the NDF armed ambush the government convoy, a black soldier held an RPG-7 anti-tank bazooka and jumped to the front of the convoy to launch rockets. Whether it is the use of the rocket launcher or the tactics of ambushes, they are extremely non-compliant. However, this weird way of fighting makes the war scenes look more "barbaric." No matter what weapon, in the hands of the "black shu", it is always wild. What is even more unexpected is that the sound effect of the rocket launch in this clip is actually synthesized by the sound of the film’s sound designer Dan Romer using the howling of an African wild dog.
The young Ghanaian actors who participated in the film grew up in a relatively peaceful environment. In order to let them know more about the cruelty of the civil war in West Africa, the director asked some tribal soldiers who had participated in the civil war in Sierra Leone and the civil war in Liberia to participate, and asked them to tell the children of Ghana about their experiences. The actor who played the soldier's "Tripod" (Tripod) had participated in the Liberian Civil War. He insisted on appearing naked in one scene. As a result, such a scene appeared in the movie-a strong black soldier holding a rugged FN MAG machine gun, swinging a huge penis, and following the "commander" wildly attacking the bridgehead guarded by the PLF... Maybe It was these actors who were so lifelike that the Ghanaian government suspected that some actors were mercenaries and arrested them. Fukunaga had to add a number of extras from the local area.
Movies that reveal the cruel truth in backward regions such as Africa seem to always be sought after by the "civilized world." "Beasts Without Borders" has also been evaluated as having a tendency to compete for Oscars. However, the tragedies in Africa and the ubiquitous child soldiers have not disappeared due to the attention of the "civilized world." Over time, this kind of "concern" flows into emotion and surface, and becomes a kind of "consumption". The war in Africa will eventually continue, just like those child soldiers’ endless road to killing...
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