Perth Voice Interactive

THE New Boy is a high impact, cinematic drama that bears a poignant, fable-like message through its captivating characters, and their exploration of conflict between spirituality, culture, and colonisation.

Award-winning Samson and Delilah and Sweet Country creator, First Nations filmmaker Warwick Thornton directs a powerful tale set in 1940s rural Australia and is inspired by his own experience growing up in a Christian boarding school. 

Cannes

Selected and screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in March, the South Australian made film was said to have dazzled critics with its endearing characters, and stunning cinematography.

The film marks a rare return to Australian cinema for internationally acclaimed Australian-export Cate Blanchett, who produces and delivers a entertaining and captivating performance as renegade head nun Sister Eileen. 

Conveying an equally as impressive performance is young newcomer Aswan Reid, who reveals a dynamic and natural talent as the wide-eyed, nearly wordless, yet big-spirited title role character. 

The nameless Indigenous nine-year-old ‘new boy’ arrives at a remote monastery in the very dead of the night. 

Little does anyone know of his spiritual powers, or of Sister Eileen’s well-kept secret and maverick moments. 

Together their untold truths beautifully portray the misunderstanding, tension, and dismissal of Aboriginal spirituality by even the more ‘in-touch’ colonialists.

These powerful ideas play out on the setting of a rural and tranquil outback Australia, and showcase the beauty of the Australian landscape, with memorable and serene scenes of swaying golden wheat fields and boundless, multicolored horizons.

Blanchett and Reid are joined by the gifted Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair, who have wonderful presence as side characters Nun Mum and farmhand George. 

The star-studded cast combines with a gorgeous, reverberating original score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Thornton’s dreamy lens work and stimulating script, to become a display of convincing and important cinema.

The New Boy, is as visually entrancing as it is subversive and thought provoking. A rich, subtlety complex, cinematic experience not seen before.

The New Boy will screen at Luna Leederville from July 6.

by DANIELA GARBIN