14 -year-old Ghanaian street vendor wins Intl. movie award

A 14-year old Ghanaian street vendor, Attah Abraham has won the Marcello Mastroianni’s Best Young Actor Award at the 2015 Venice Film Festival.

He won the award for his lead performance in a movie alongside Idris Elba.

Attah Abraham who is said to be without any acting background was picked from the streets of Ghana during the shooting of Netflix’s soon to be released movie “Beasts of No Nation.”

According the Director of the movie, Cary Fukunaga, Atta Abraham was randomly selected on the streets.

Cary Fukunaga according to the Business Insider said:

“the lead in ‘Beasts of No Nation’ was essentially a street vendor before we shot the film. He had zero film experience, little education…but he became a somewhat professional actor, which was astounding to watch.”

Fukunaga added that, “his unlikely star’s name is Abraham Attah, and he is a 14-year-old who plays an 11-year-old child soldier in the film. Abraham’s character joins a militant group from an unnamed West African country that is led by a brutal warlord, played by Idris Elba (“Luther”)”.

The director explained that about 30 of the kids were also selected “and we did this theater workshop and tried scenes that were in the script, and we would improvise.

The kids are fast learners, they quickly understood that the better they did the longer they stayed as potential casts.”