Filmmaker Cary Fukunaga’s new film, Beasts of No Nation, releases today in theatres and on Netflix.This is the first time that a feature film is releasing simultaneously in theatres and streaming  online. With this film could Los Gatos-based Netflix became a key player in the film industry?

We spoke to Fukunaga and Abraham Attah, the young actor who makes his debut in Beasts of No Nation in San Francisco. They were here to attend the 38th Mill Valley Film Festival.

As usual I had lot of questions, wich I had to pare down to a few key questions. How was Attah selected for the film? What drew Fukunaga to make this film? What was it like to shoot the film in Ghana? Did Attah get a chance to rap with Idris Elba? Was he surprised at winning an award at the recent Venice Film Festival? How did Fukunaga develop the cadence and rhythm for Elba’s character? And we asked him about Sam Pekinpah’s influence. Of course, we had to ask Fukunaga about the Netflix deal and what it means to the future of films, especially when it comes to distribution in theaters. Will Netflix’s involvement in feature films alter the game? Tune into the interview and find out what Fukunaga and Attah have to say about Beasts of No Nation.

LISTEN: CARY FUKUNAGA AND ABRAHAM ATTAH ON BEASTS OF NO NATION

Beasts of No Nation is based on Uzodino Iwaela’s novel by the same name. Set in an unamed West African nation, the film traces the journey of a young innocent boy to a life of war and brutality. When Agu (Attah) suffers the violent loss of his family in the ongoing civil war, he is left without any family moorings. While hiding in the jungle he stumbles upon a group of child soldiers and finds himself inexorably drawn into the group. He is initiated as a child soldier under the charismatic and brutal leadership of the Commandant (Idris Elba). As part of this small and tight group of child and teenage soldiers, Agu finds himself perpetrating the very violence from which he had tried to escape. How Agu survive the ordeal and what happens to him is what the picture is about.