Talk about feeling like a complete pile of shit of a human being. Fuck.

The lines and dialogues are so powerful, especially in the scenes when Agu (Abraham Attah) reflects on the brutality of the war as a kid. It is most disturbingly heart-breaking when he compares dead bodies under the sun to a scent of "burnt mango". The process of normalizing violence among the African child soldiers can't be captured more grimly without Idris Elba's impressive performance as the warlord The Commandant. The only little thing the movie seems to lack is on Agu's bonding with Striker, but other than that this movie delivers the life of African child soldier astonishingly.

An under-rated movie. We need more stories from Africa with this much depth.

Fantastic cinematography & sound, good acting and interesting characters. The problem is that the film tries to present itself as this raw emotional experience, which it kind of is (it’s very bleak), but then it simultaneously makes some cheap, commercial decisions. For example, its use of narration is completely unnecessary, the story is too predictable and tropey, its use of the English language makes little sense (and if you’re gonna go there, just let everyone speak English from the very beginning?), etc.. It certainly makes enough smart decisions to make this an easy recommendation, and there are moments that’ll stick with me for a longer period of time, but this could’ve been one of the best of the year if it made some better creative decisions. 7/10

This was an incredibly hard movie to watch. Idris played a real monster in this movie. Was quite uncomfortable for me.