“The New Boy” is a luminous work of art that embodies the cultural crossroads, faith, and magical realism in Australia.
During WWII, two Australian military officers captured an Aboriginal child who was fighting ferociously for freedom on the plains. They turned him over to a nun-run monastery in the middle of nowhere, where they wanted to “westernize” him. In the remote facility, children were prepared to be incorporated into the workforce to produce goods for the international conflict.
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| Asan Reid plays extraordinarily well as “The New Boy.” |
Newcomer Asan Reid plays “the boy with no name” with extraordinary skill. On the farm, everyone calls him New Boy.
Even if no one trusts him, his noble inner strength is ready to do good, even for those who look at him differently and bully him.
New Boy is spiritually connected to the world, the land, and all the creatures of the animal kingdom.
Sister Eileen is connected to the story’s mystical aspect. She is a liberal and unorthodox Catholic nun who leads the convent and is both principled and well-organized. Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett delivers an outstanding performance as the spiritual leader of this unique and intriguing place, conveying a wide range of emotions, from leadership to vulnerability.
As this unique, magical tale unfolds, the perfectly determined character arcs reflect both the archetype and the plot. Their natural evolution, internal conflicts, obsessions, goals, and adversities are easy to follow.
The magic the New Boy possesses illuminates the story. The religious elements serve as symbols of inspiration for some and oppression for others, creating a sense of unease due to the clash of both cultures, both visually and politically.
“The New Boy” boasts an outstanding cast, featuring Deborah Mailman as the sweet Sister Mom, Wayne Blair as George, Cate Blanchett in the lead, and Asan Reid as the new boy.
Other outstanding films in which children are removed from their natural environments and placed in strange settings, leading to their distress and isolation, include last year’s Oscar-nominated narrative short, “Le pupulle,” produced by Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón.
More examples of the magic realism genre include “Érendira,” written by Nobel Prize-winning Gabriel García Márquez in 1983. The 1982 Oscar-nominated Nicaraguan feature “Alsino and the Condor.” In 2019, “The Painted Bird” shocked the film festival circuit. The endearing black-and-white film tells the story of a Jewish boy wandering alone in a conflict zone during WWII. Moving to a more contemporary reality is the 2017 Mexican production “Tigers Are Not Afraid,” in which orphaned children affected by the war on drugs struggle to survive in a dystopian land. New Zealand’s internationally successful road movie “Hunting for the Wilderpeople” is a comedy directed by Taika Waititi, featuring a troubled boy who runs into the wild with his step-grandfather.
Warwick Thornton, the director and cinematographer of “The New Boy” (DP on “September of Shiraz,” “Samson & Delilah,” and “Sweet Country”), was also responsible for photographing “The New Boy.”
Warwick Thornton presents a sumptuous, visually stunning work, featuring vast, expansive landscapes and dramatic interiors. Chiaroscuro accentuates religious themes, providing the right balance of light and shadow for this remarkable project, rooted in the director’s childhood experience.
“The New Boy” was shot in South Australia, in the same region where Cate Blanchett started acting in the 1996 Australian movie “Parklands,” produced by her husband, Andrew Upton. Twenty-five years later, Cate returns to her homeland and stars in this new period drama directed by Dirty Films, her and her husband’s production company.
A key difference between the 1994 French film “Little Indian, Big City” and the 1997 American remake “Jungle to Jungle” is that “The New Boy” preserves the boy’s purity until his soul is corrupted by the religiosity of a Catholic baptism. The film’s magical realism is more intrinsic than in Alejandro Monteverde’s 2015 “Little Boy” (“Sound of Freedom”).
The ideal image of a harmonious blend of cultures in Australia is scrutinized in “The New Boy,” as the nation works to confront its colonial past with the Aboriginal people and with the rest of the world.
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