The New Boy

• Warwick Thornton
• 116 min
• Australia
• 2023
• Fiction

Cate Blanchett shines in a grand spiritual colonial drama by festival favorite Warwick Thornton, about a young Aboriginal boy challenging the church in 1940s Australia.

Following Samson and Delilah (GFF 2010) and Sweet Country (GFF 2018), Thornton returns with another powerful drama about Australia's Indigenous people and colonizers. Sister Eileen (Blanchett) is in charge of an orphanage in a remote countryside convent. Here, young wayward boys are meant to be guided onto the right path with patient care, and converting them to Christianity is a central objective. The new Aboriginal boy (Aswan Reid, fantastic!) proves difficult to discipline, but he responds to Eileen's religious teachings and, like Eileen's savior, demonstrates miraculous abilities. The question is whether there is room for Aboriginal influences within Christianity. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis's music enhances an already powerful film experience.

- Johan Blomqvist

• Historia
• Kolonialism
• Religion
• Drama
• Barndom