If you want judgment ripped out of you, watch “Beasts of No Nation.” Oh, sure; you’ll judge war to be bad. No question about it – but you will also see how “Yes, sir,” galvanizes the testosterone riddled hearts of young men. They will obey the one who wraps up all raging, confused emotions into a direction, a direction to point a gun. Until it all poops out. Your best friend dies. You have no ammo. You can finally see through the Commander. And never once did you stop talking to God. How is it that in such a God-forsaken sociological jungle you keep wondering if God is watching. Isn’t the evil senselessness of it enough to cloud the events on the ground even from God? And yet God is the only one there to talk to.
Can a child wash the memories away in the sea? Never, and, yet, jump into the sea can the boy. To say “Powerful,” is so weak. To see the look in Agu’s eyes at the end is so … so Agu. There’s the Best Actor – and he was not even nominated. There’s the boy we all are, could be, were, and will not be by the grace of God. There is soul, bare. There is Agu. Oh God, humanity, oh God. Help us moment by moment to be kind.
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