There is strong bloody violence throughout as soldiers shoot people. In one scene soldiers place grenades into prisoners' mouths and subsequently blow them up. In other scenes child soldiers hack a prisoner to death with machetes as part of an obedience test and kick a young girl repeatedly. There are also dead bodies and blood in the aftermath of violence, and in one scene characters look at the burnt remains of a person, with the ribcage partially exposed and the mouth still wide open.

In one sequence a man rapes a screaming woman, and during the assault another character shoots the victim fatally in the head. In another sequence there is an implication that the boy's military leader sexually assaults him, but the activity is not shown on screen.

There is use of strong language ('f**k', 'motherf**ker'), and milder terms including 'shit' and 'butt'.

There are several portrayals of cannabis joint smoking, often by child soldiers. In one scene an adult rebel commander places resin, possibly heroin, on silver foil, heats it and inhales the resulting fumes. In another scene a boy extracts the gunpowder from a bullet, burns it and inhales the remaining substance.