VENICE FILM FESTIVAL JUDGES WOWED BY 14 YEAR OLD GHANIAN ACTOR

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From a vendor on the streets to a beast on the screen, 14 year old Abraham Attah is certainly getting attention well deserved.

The teenager from the Ghanaian capital of Accra won the Marcello Mastroianni's Best Young Actor Award at the 2015 Venice Film Festival on Saturday for his lead role in Netflix's first original feature movie, "Beasts of No Nation."

Abraham plays Agu, a young boy whose world is torn apart when he is recruited as a child soldier in the civil war in an unnamed West African country. He is cast alongside, Idris Elba, the Golden Globe-winning star of "Luther" and "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" who plays the ruthless warlord who manipulates Agu into becoming a young killer.

Who was Abraham Attah before ''Beasts of No Nation?'' He was a street vendor with little educational background and no acting experience.

“We were in the school… we were playing football on our school field and a whiteman came and he said he need some boys for a movie. And we were playing football, and he said we should come so we went, … uhm we were auditioned. And we will be going to a TV station in Ghana for audition and I was cast.” Abraham told the press. He was one out of 30 kids gathered for the role ‘Agu’, the protagonist in the movie, and he must have impressed someone because he landed the lead role.

“Attah plays the role with such convincing reality you’d swear he had been in front of the camera for years prior,” noted Jason Guerrasio.

The film that has left critics at Toronto and Venice film festival speechless is based on the 2005 novel by Nigerian author Uzodinma Iweala.

The young actor Abraham Attah was said to have become'somewhat of a professional actor' once he was placed on the movie set.

"Beasts of No Nation" will debut in select Landmark theaters and on Netflix on Oct. 16.

Congratulations to the young talent Abraham Attah, star in "Beasts of No Nation-" a sure contender for an Oscar.