Friendly Fire deals with a lot of tough subjects. But we just wanted to give a special heads up that today's film, which centers around a child soldier in West Africa, features depictions of sexual violence and child abuse.

Your hosts are going to talk about those things in this episode, and we just wanted folks

to be aware of that going in.

Skip to next week's episode,

if that's not a subject you want to hear a podcast about.

How do you know there's someone who's been to Africa at your party?

I'll tell you. I'm the fireman of going to Africa. I've been to Kenya a couple of times, once for work and once for a wedding.

I got mugged on the streets of Addis Ababa for my iPhone, which was the second time I've been mugged for an iPhone.

The first time was in Brooklyn.

I've been to Northern Nigeria and Senegal in recent years.

They're great. My passport is running out of blank pages.

I love Africa. I think everybody should go.

But in all the places I've been, all the people I've met and history I've read,

nothing prepared me for what I saw in watching Beast of No Nation.

It is a brutal and unflinching, but also utterly beautiful picture of a very specifically unnamed African

nation at war.

That's because Carrie Jojiji Fukunaga directs the film.

He is an incredibly talented storyteller both narratively and visually.

His work here is astounding.

In this film, Fukunaga also acts as his own cinematographer for the screenplay he also wrote.

If that sounds like a heavy amount of weight to carry, it is.

But pales in comparison to what an audience is asked to endure as we witness the life of Agu.

...