What starts as a rumination on religion and the gateway to spirituality it can provide turns its focus by the film’s end to the reverse of that perception. New Boy (Aswan Reid) a young First Nations lad is yanked from his homeland and literally dragged to a remote monastery.
His new home is run by two renegade nuns played by Cate Blanchett and Deborah Mailman. Set in rolling fields of wheat writer/director Warwick Thornton who also triples as director of photography perfectly captures the sense of isolation.
The boy is thrown into a way of life that is almost completely foreign to him and he keeps his distance from the other boys in the orphanage. Slowly the true nature of his character is revealed and he is shown to actually have the spark of life at his fingertips.
The fact that many organised religions are deaf to the innate spirituality of the people it attempts to save is given full measure here. It is delivered in a subtle manner but a firm one nonetheless. It’s a beautifully presented story with a sting in the tail.
Rob Hudson
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