Among the first of Netflix’s big moves into becoming a film distributor is its acquisition of Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts Of No Nation, which stars Idris Elba. On the heels of its inclusion in both the Toronto and Venice film festivals comes this first teaser trailer.
Beasts, which adapts author Uzodinma Iweala’s novel, finds a young man named Agu (Abraham Attah) abducted from his home and pressed into service as a child soldier. Elba is playing the Commandant, a warlord who mentors Agu during his training. Fukunaga also adapted the script, which aims to take an unflinching look at a troubling, terrifying reality.
While Elba is often intense in his roles, we don’t usually get to see him being truly menacing. But from the looks of this, the Commandant, with his measured application of horror, will be a chance to do just that.
Netflix will be streaming the film from October 16 in several of its territories around the world including the UK. The company also has US distributor Bleecker Street on hand to release it in American cinemas the same day so it can qualify for awards season.