The New Boy (15)

★★★ Cate Blanchett in imperious zealot mode is hard to resist as a boozy nun who indulges a possible second coming in this woozy wartime saga. ~ The Guardian.

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Introducing Aswan Reid who stars alongside Cate Blanchett (Tár, Carol), Deborah Mailman (The Sapphires, The Secret Life of Us) and Wayne Blair (Redfern Now, Mystery Road), The New Boy is written and directed by Palme d’Or winning director Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah, Sweet Country), with music composed by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis (Blonde).

In a remote monastery in 1940s Australia, a mission for Indigenous Australian children is run by a renegade nun, Sister Eileen.

A new charge is delivered in the dead of night – a boy who appears to have special powers.

When the monastery takes possession of a precious relic, a large carving of Christ on the cross, the new boy encounters Jesus for the first time and is transfixed.

However, the boy’s Indigenous spiritual life does not gel with the mission’s Christianity and his mysterious power becomes a threat.

Sister Eileen is faced with a choice between the traditions of her faith and the truth embodied in the boy, in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.

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★★★★ Impressive newcomer Aswan Reid is fantastic as the unnamed Aboriginal boy in this beautifully mounted fantasy drama from Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah, Sweet Country). ~ Radio Times.

★★★ ~ Little White Lies.

★★★ ~ Financial Times.

★★★ ~ The Observer.

★★★ ~ Empire.