Beasts of No Nation, the highly anticipated film by US director Cary Fukunaga, is set to hit the silver screen early next year. The adaption of Nigerian writer Uzodinma Iweala’s 2005 novel of the same name tells the story of Agu, a young boy living through a civil war in an unnamed West African country. The story circles in on the horrors and brutalities Agu faces and commits after the murder of his father by militants and his subsequent recruitment as a child soldier. The actor Idris Elba, who co-produced the film, also stars as a military commander. Shot on location in Ghana, Beasts of No Nation took Fukunaga seven years to develop and is the latest in a wave of cinema adaptations of novels by African authors. It follows the adaptation of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun that was released in 2013, directed by Nigerian Biyi Bandele and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton. Adichie’s most recent novel, Americanah, is also set to be turned into a film by actor Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B Entertainment. Co-producer Lupita Nyong’o will take the leading role following her Oscar-winning performance in 12 Years a Slave, though details of its release are yet to be announced.
