--- title: Cary Fukunaga on Beasts of No Nation, Idris Elba, Violence description: Netflix's first feature film is already generating Oscar buzz canonical: https://time.com/4074204/cary-fukunaga-beasts-of-no-nation/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-15T12:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:48:19.135Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Cary Fukunaga on Beasts of No Nation, Idris Elba, Violence og:description: Netflix's first feature film is already generating Oscar buzz og:url: https://time.com/4074204/cary-fukunaga-beasts-of-no-nation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ddbe7f7684bcb86/698863f00a4a22a7c79c61b6/beasts-of-no-nation.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: beasts-of-no-nation og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cary Fukunaga on Beasts of No Nation, Idris Elba, Violence twitter:description: Netflix's first feature film is already generating Oscar buzz twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ddbe7f7684bcb86/698863f00a4a22a7c79c61b6/beasts-of-no-nation.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Cary Fukunaga Talk About the Violence in _Beasts of No Nation_  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Oct 15, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Cary Fukunaga’s gripping drama about African child soldiers sees Netflix entering the Oscar race. Cary Fukunaga’s gripping drama about African child soldiers sees Netflix entering the Oscar race.Netflix  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Oct 15, 2015 12:00 PM UTC Director Cary Joji Fukunaga knows his new film about child soldiers in an unnamed West African country, _Beasts of No Nation_, is difficult to stomach. One of the more gruesome scenes, briefly featured in the trailer, shows the movie’s young protagonist Agu killing his first victim by swinging a machete into the top of the man’s skull. “I know inevitably there will be people who can’t make it through the film,” Fukunaga says. “But I also couldn’t diminish it so much that it didn’t feel authentic.” The film—Netflix’s first feature project—follows Agu as he is indoctrinated into a West African rebel army by a warlord played by Idris Elba. Fukunaga, who acted as writer, director and cinematographer, worked on the movie for the better part of a decade, finally filming in Ghana last year after wrapping up his gig directing the entire first season of _True Detective_. There, he had to delay production when he came down with malaria, send money to film extras who had been jailed on suspicion of being mercenaries and take over the Steadicam when his cameraman suffered an injury. But the result of all their labor was a movie that’s already garnered Oscar buzz at the Venice and Toronto film festivals; it’s a beautiful punch in the gut. “I’d rather be a documenter of our time in a fictional format than pretending none of this is happening,” says Fukunaga. Read TIME’s [full story](http://time.com/4074556/director-cary-fukunaga-tamed-beasts-to-tell-a-crucial-african-story/) about Fukunaga and Elba’s travails in the issue on stands Oct. 16. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4074204/cary-fukunaga-beasts-of-no-nation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4074204/cary-fukunaga-beasts-of-no-nation/"},"headline":"Watch Cary Fukunaga Talk About the Violence in Beasts of No Nation","datePublished":"2015-10-15T12:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:48:19.135Z","description":"Netflix's first feature film is already generating Oscar buzz for star Idris Elba","url":"https://time.com/4074204/cary-fukunaga-beasts-of-no-nation/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ddbe7f7684bcb86/698863f00a4a22a7c79c61b6/beasts-of-no-nation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ddbe7f7684bcb86/698863f00a4a22a7c79c61b6/beasts-of-no-nation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"beasts-of-no-nation","caption":"beasts-of-no-nation","creditText":"Netflix","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4074204/cary-fukunaga-beasts-of-no-nation/","name":"Watch Cary Fukunaga Talk About the Violence in Beasts of No Nation"}}]}] ```