Aswan Reid, Cate Blanchett, Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair
The follow-up to his searing, highly acclaimed western Sweet Country (2017), Warwick Thornton returns with this artful, fiercely political tale of spiritual worlds colliding, starring superb newcomer Aswan Reid alongside Cate Blanchett (who also co-produced).
Australia, 1940s: Renegade nun Sister Eileen (Blanchett) presides over Indigenous boys deliberately orphaned by the authorities in the Australian Outback. In her orphanage, no Indigenous values, language or practices are allowed. The arrival of a new boy (Reid) unsettles the monastery, as do his mysterious, perhaps supernatural, abilities – but further enliven Sister Eileen’s fervour for Christ to be his guide.
Featuring a truly magnetic performance from Reid, transfixing cinematography and a haunting score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, The New Boy is an engrossing, ambiguous study of spirituality, culture and colonisation that draws on Thornton’s own childhood experiences of attending Catholic boarding school and a particular chapter in Australian history.