Let’s briefly talk about African war-themed films. Most of the inspiration for this type of film to me came from the “Hotel Rwanda” adapted from the real background of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Since then, I have been interested in Africa. Geographical contention and killing and refugees have begun to have some superficial understanding. However, afterward, whether it was a civil war in one country or a multi-national war, it did not improve my understanding of Africa much. Over time, in my mind, Africa was fixed as a southern hemisphere continent intertwined with poverty, disease and turmoil. Fortunately, it is precisely this mindset that makes me feel such tremors when I see the almost horrific growth path of the African "Boy Scouts".
As mentioned above, "Beast Without Borders" is a story about a "boy scout" in a non-governmental organization called NDF in a certain African country. Aside from national justice, the director uses the perspective of children to describe the growth of children in war-torn Africa course. The protagonist's name is "Agu". He grew up in a happy family. His father was a teacher before the war, and his mother was kind and gentle. The couple raised three children. , My brother only cares about his strong muscles and clean hair every day. We can see the woman my brother loves from the swept camera. My brother once said proudly, "Girls will fall in love with me when they see my muscles." , This sentence opened Agu's understanding of the opposite sex, and also determined Agu's attitude towards women in the future. Brotherhood, or the bond between boys, is reinforced in Agu's family atmosphere, where the night before the escape, his parents quarrel, while Agu and his brother frolic in the dark little house next door, built by a small flashlight. From the simple happiness of the two of them, this extravagant happiness was gradually rejected by the upcoming war during the growth of Agu's boyhood.
The father spent 70,000 yuan to send Agu's mother and sister to the fleeing car. The road to escape was long, and the mother and sister who became refugees never appeared on the camera. We don't know their ending, only before the mother left. Say to Agu: Remember to pray to God every day and I will see you soon. God, yes, the Agu family trusts God very much. In times of peace, God is the belief of man. When war comes, God becomes the hope of man's survival. Before his death, my father told Agu: No matter what happens, it is God who is testing us. In the tone of a teacher, his father gave Agu a complex test. Whether he could pass the test would directly determine Agu's future. In the next few days, when Agu turned into a young beast that he could not recognize, he repeatedly asked Agu to pass the test. Tortured the God in the mouth of his parents: "You said that was sin, but I know it was correct."
Unfortunately, Agu failed to give his father a satisfactory answer in the end, and he joined an anarchy called NDF Organization, the leader is called the commander. In order to establish absolute authority, commanders usually conduct thorough brainwashing training on soldiers to cultivate killing machines that are not afraid of bullets. Of course, Agu is not immune. Killing and accepting killing are two concepts. When Agu learned how to kill for the first time, he and another boy dubbed "Hercules" raised their machetes and chopped off innocent civilians with frightened eyes. The face is indifferent, and the film seems to be drawn away from the noise. In a huge space like a bottomless pit, blood flows down the tip of Agu's knife, mixed with rain, and dyes the quiet country road red. Agu vomited because of the naked killing, and accepting the death he personally created is a very cruel reality. In the voice-over, the commander who was given authority told Agu: Look at his blood, kill your father's blood, this is justice. Agu seems to have not heard the word "justice" for too long, and it begins to question whether God's protection is really as reliable as his parents say, right and wrong, good and evil, in this comical space shrouded in war, only guns and Bullets make people feel safe.
Therefore, the director did not hesitate to use two long shots to show Agu's insane attitude in the killing, whether it was trampling a girl of the same age as his sister and shooting the raped woman in self-devastating panic, or in the thick fog. Walking through the trenches on the wet soil and rain, Agu was always hesitant: the countless shouts, whether God is listening, whether the song of the mother in memory, the heroic appearance of God in the song, still exist in this absurd war . As 2IC said when he held Agu's hand before he died: none of this makes any sense. If it doesn't make sense, why continue? How can I get rid of it? The departure of his partner made Agu understand that the only way to stop fighting was death.
In the end, Agu and his friends were rescued by the UN. Facing the psychological rescuer, Agu said that he was no longer a child, but an old man, because he had experienced battles in war, and some people did not even know what war was. knowledge. I think this may be the forever lingering imprint of war in a person's youth.
At the end of the film, on the beach in West Africa, children are playing, Agu turned his back to the camera, took off his shirt and ran towards them. He ran without hesitation, and he didn't even want to look back. The sea is no longer the sea, and he is no longer the original self, but only the seemingly worry-free play can make Agu set off again and try to find the lost "God" in the mouth of his parents.
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