The New Boy

About

Dir: Warwick Thornton
2023 Australia 96’
Cate Blanchett, Aswan Reid, Deborah Mailman

‘The New Boy, written, directed and filmed by Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton, is a masterpiece.’ Stephen Romei, The Australian

In a remote monastery in 1940s Australia, a mission for Aboriginal children is run by Sister Eileen. A new charge is delivered in the dead of night, a boy who appears to have special powers. When the new boy encounters Jesus for the first time in the form of a precious relic, he is transfixed but his Indigenous spiritual life does not gel with the mission’s Christianity and his mysterious power becomes a threat. Renegade nun, Sister Eileen must choose between the traditions of her faith and the truth embodied in the boy, in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival. 

‘There’s a kinetic strength to star-in-the-making Aswan Reid’s screen presence as we first glimpse his unnamed ‘new boy’... A scrapper with a mess of sun-bleached hair, he seems to channel the vast majesty of the mountainous desert.’ Stephen A. Russell, Time Out

‘Thornton conjures the otherworldly power of Australia’s scorched red earth and its strange, vivid sunsets; in this story of spiritual resilience and communion with the divine, the landscape is an abiding, almighty presence.’ Isaac Feldberg, RogerEbert.com

‘Memorable for its superbly expressive central turn by Aswan Reid.’ Charles Bramesco, Little White Lies