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The New Boy
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The New Boy
The New Boy is a 2023 Australian drama film written and directed by Warwick Thornton, and starring Aswan Reid as the title character, alongside Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair, and Cate Blanchett, who was also a producer of the film. It follows a young Aboriginal Australian orphan boy who is brought into a Christian monastery, run by a renegade nun, where he begins to question his faith and loyalty to his heritage.
The film premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2023, and was theatrically released in Australia on 6 July 2023 by Roadshow Films. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
In the Australian outback in the mid-1940s Australia, a nameless nine-year-old orphan boy, Aboriginal except that he has some fair hair, strangles a white horseman. Another horseman fells the boy with a boomerang; then the boy is taken in at a remote monastery for raising Aboriginal boys. The monastery is seemingly run by a male priest, who has actually been dead for a year without anyone appearing to know the cause. The lead nun, Sister Eileen, claims to outsiders that the priest is still alive, and forges letters to create this impression. Eileen is supported in her work and her deception by a fellow nun who goes by the nickname "Sister Mum" and a man named George, both of whom are Aboriginal and assimilated to Christian beliefs. Though times are difficult, the nuns care for the boys and desire to protect them through Christian teachings and shared manual work. The boys are not provided with any knowledge of Aboriginal values, language or practices. Their fate is to be forced to leave very early and be employed as farm hands. Sister Mum is implied to have converted to Christianity due to the loss of her two children, while George lives a secure life at the monastery.
The orphan boy, nicknamed the "New Boy", initially struggles to fit in with the other boys, being incapable of speaking or understanding English and lacking any desire for Western behaviour, such as footwear and clothing. After a period of bullying, the New Boy gradually asserts himself physically and emotionally, and becomes accepted by everyone. Throughout this process, the New Boy is shown to possess mysterious supernatural abilities to conjure small balls of light and to heal sick animals and humans.
This period of relative peace is broken by the arrival of a large statue of a crucified Jesus for the monastery's church. The New Boy finds himself drawn to the statue, envisioning it as if were alive. He feels compelled to deliver offerings of live snakes to the statue, to which everyone else reacts with fear. He also starts to experience stigmata in his hands, with his other supernatural powers becoming confused.
When the New Boy revives a dead snake, a lightning strike causes a fire in the fields, which George and the other boys are forced to put out. Meanwhile, in front of the statue, the New Boy stabs both his hands to mimic the crucified Jesus. Eileen discovers this and, after an initial shock, sees it as a sign of his embrace of Christianity. When George and the other boys return to the monastery, the eldest boy, Michael, has been injured and burnt from putting out the fires. The New Boy uses his powers to heal Michael, which Eileen and George witness.
The New Boy's behaviour and unorthodox infatuation with Jesus disturb everyone, while he sometimes reverts to his old ways. This behaviour includes him secretly taking down the statue to play with it, "heal" it from its crucifixion wounds, and dress it up; it is eventually found by Eileen and put back in the church by George. Weary that the New Boy is yet to abandon his Aboriginal ways, George separates him from the other boys.
After a crisis of faith, believing that the New Boy has been sent to her as a messenger from Christ, Eileen decides to baptise him to cleanse him from his "sins". Although he still has little understanding of Christianity, the New Boy accepts the baptism but he immediately realises that this has permanently destroyed his supernatural abilities. Resigned to his new life, the New Boy begins wearing clothing and footwear. As V-day arrives, he tentatively starts living the new life, experiencing acceptance from everyone again, but leaving his future uncertain and his heritage now torn between two vastly different worlds.
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The New Boy
The New Boy is a 2023 Australian drama film written and directed by Warwick Thornton, and starring Aswan Reid as the title character, alongside Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair, and Cate Blanchett, who was also a producer of the film. It follows a young Aboriginal Australian orphan boy who is brought into a Christian monastery, run by a renegade nun, where he begins to question his faith and loyalty to his heritage.
The film premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2023, and was theatrically released in Australia on 6 July 2023 by Roadshow Films. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
In the Australian outback in the mid-1940s Australia, a nameless nine-year-old orphan boy, Aboriginal except that he has some fair hair, strangles a white horseman. Another horseman fells the boy with a boomerang; then the boy is taken in at a remote monastery for raising Aboriginal boys. The monastery is seemingly run by a male priest, who has actually been dead for a year without anyone appearing to know the cause. The lead nun, Sister Eileen, claims to outsiders that the priest is still alive, and forges letters to create this impression. Eileen is supported in her work and her deception by a fellow nun who goes by the nickname "Sister Mum" and a man named George, both of whom are Aboriginal and assimilated to Christian beliefs. Though times are difficult, the nuns care for the boys and desire to protect them through Christian teachings and shared manual work. The boys are not provided with any knowledge of Aboriginal values, language or practices. Their fate is to be forced to leave very early and be employed as farm hands. Sister Mum is implied to have converted to Christianity due to the loss of her two children, while George lives a secure life at the monastery.
The orphan boy, nicknamed the "New Boy", initially struggles to fit in with the other boys, being incapable of speaking or understanding English and lacking any desire for Western behaviour, such as footwear and clothing. After a period of bullying, the New Boy gradually asserts himself physically and emotionally, and becomes accepted by everyone. Throughout this process, the New Boy is shown to possess mysterious supernatural abilities to conjure small balls of light and to heal sick animals and humans.
This period of relative peace is broken by the arrival of a large statue of a crucified Jesus for the monastery's church. The New Boy finds himself drawn to the statue, envisioning it as if were alive. He feels compelled to deliver offerings of live snakes to the statue, to which everyone else reacts with fear. He also starts to experience stigmata in his hands, with his other supernatural powers becoming confused.
When the New Boy revives a dead snake, a lightning strike causes a fire in the fields, which George and the other boys are forced to put out. Meanwhile, in front of the statue, the New Boy stabs both his hands to mimic the crucified Jesus. Eileen discovers this and, after an initial shock, sees it as a sign of his embrace of Christianity. When George and the other boys return to the monastery, the eldest boy, Michael, has been injured and burnt from putting out the fires. The New Boy uses his powers to heal Michael, which Eileen and George witness.
The New Boy's behaviour and unorthodox infatuation with Jesus disturb everyone, while he sometimes reverts to his old ways. This behaviour includes him secretly taking down the statue to play with it, "heal" it from its crucifixion wounds, and dress it up; it is eventually found by Eileen and put back in the church by George. Weary that the New Boy is yet to abandon his Aboriginal ways, George separates him from the other boys.
After a crisis of faith, believing that the New Boy has been sent to her as a messenger from Christ, Eileen decides to baptise him to cleanse him from his "sins". Although he still has little understanding of Christianity, the New Boy accepts the baptism but he immediately realises that this has permanently destroyed his supernatural abilities. Resigned to his new life, the New Boy begins wearing clothing and footwear. As V-day arrives, he tentatively starts living the new life, experiencing acceptance from everyone again, but leaving his future uncertain and his heritage now torn between two vastly different worlds.