During WWII, two Australian military officers captured an Aboriginal child fighting ferociously for freedom in the plains. They turn him to a nuns-run monastery in the middle of only God knows where they wanted to “westernize” him. In the remote facility, children were prepared to be incorporated into the workforce and produce goods for the international conflict.
Asan Reid plays extraordinarily well as “The New Boy.” |
Other outstanding works where children are deployed from their natural environment and placed in strange places where they suffer distress and isolation are, last year, Oscar nominee narrative short produced by Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón “Le pupulle,” “Cándida” written by Nobel prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, Oscar nominee Nicaraguan feature “Alsino and the Condor.” “The Painted Bird” is about a Jewish kid roaming by himself in the middle of the conflict zone during WWII. “Tigers are not Afraid” is a Mexican feature where orphan children from the war on drugs battle for survival in a dystopian land. New Zealand’s internationally successful road movie “Hunting for the Wilderpeople” is a comedy directed by Taika Waititi in which a troubled kid runs into the wild with his step-grandfather.
“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 produced by Dirty Films, her and her husband’s production company.
A difference between the 1994 French film “Little Indian, Big City” and the 1997 American remake “Jungle to Jungle,” “The New Boy” maintains the purity of the boy’s nature until his soul gets corrupted by the religiosity of a baptism in the Catholic faith. The magical realism presented in the film is more intrinsic than in 2015, “Little Boy” by Alejandro Monteverde (“Sound of Freedom”).
“The New Boy” adds voices of diversity and inclusion, as in many other essential Australian projects. The country tries to amend its colonial past with the aboriginal people to show an image of a harmonious blend of cultures worldwide.
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