"The New Boy", 2023

Review of the movie "The New Boy", a historical drama from the Cannes Film Festival with Cate Blanchett

A curious but tedious story of an indigenous Australian boy growing up within the walls of a Catholic monastery.

1940. A nine-year-old indigenous orphan boy (Aswan Reid) wanders into a remote Australian convent. The abode is run by Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett). The newcomer joins the company of boys who are raised and work at the convent. The young orphan can cure diseases and communicate with animals, but it is unknown whether the talents will be retained if Sister Eileen converts the aborigine to Catholicism.

Warwick Thornton's film premiered in the Un Certain Regard program at the Cannes Film Festival. This is the third feature film of the Australian director. The teen melodrama "Samson and Dalila" won the "Camera d'Or" at Cannes, and the western "The Sweet Land" won the Special Jury Prize in Venice. Thornton, as an indigenous Australian, always addresses the country's troubled history. At the center of the narrative is the complex relationship between the Aborigines and the white power, and important roles are played by non-professional actors. Even when the producer turns to the serial format, the theme does not change. For example, in the show "Fire Bite," Indigenous hunters battle an army of vampires.

"New" - a special case in the filmography of Thornton. The picture is based on the personal history of the author. Until the age of 13, the director lived in a Catholic monastery, but did not have the opportunity to enter the church, because he was a representative of the indigenous population. Thornton not only directed "The New Guy", but also wrote the script and acted as a cameraman.

Nun Eileen hides the death of the elderly abbot of the monastery, and therefore the novice can not be called sinless. Apparently, the arrival of a new priest can disturb the harmony of the long-built closed world in a remote place. The news of the Second World War is heard from afar, but the monastery is only tangentially affected by the hostilities. One of the pupils is taken to work on the farm, as most of the men have been sent to the front, there are not enough hands.

Eileen is helped to educate and feed the boys by another nun (Deborah Mailman), who asks all the orphans to just call her mom. There are endless fields and sparse trees all around. The landscape is reminiscent of Terrence Malick's "Days of Harvest" or Andrew Wyeth's "Christine's World." Only instead of a house in the distance in "New" a church and a couple of buildings. Operator's work with an abundance of panoramic shots, on which a man looks like a grain of sand against the background of nature - a definite plus of the movie. Thornton often montages interior scenes with views of sprouting grain. Episodes inside the church also resemble classical canvases, only Renaissance paintings. Obviously, the Australian relies on the visuals, forgetting a little about the script.

Deceived by the authorities, Eileen considers herself a rebel and suffers, but the arrival of a boy who can perform miracles becomes a kind of forgiveness. The sister feels she must introduce the newcomer to the Catholic faith. A huge wooden statue of Jesus even arrives at the convent. The boy begins to care for the statue as if it were a living person, trying to feed the motionless figure a jam sandwich.

The naive nine-year-old orphan knows nothing about Catholic ceremonies and traditions, but feels a connection with the Almighty. The boy is drawn to the statue of Jesus and wants to spend as much time as possible in the church building. At first, the acquaintance of a small representative of the indigenous population with Catholicism arouses interest, but Thornton does not really know where to take the story, only wondering again and again: is it possible to truly believe and not observe any rites?

"The Newcomer" can be seen as a sprawling metaphor for the formation of modern Australia. Eileen's sister is the white colonizers, the nine-year-old orphan is the indigenous population of the country. The author in this case omits the bloody massacres of the aborigines, and considers a seemingly benign story of the collision of two cultures that have nothing in common. Gradually, the outsiders and the indigenous people manage to get along and build a joint state, albeit with unequal rights, but the people who originally lived in Australia lose their identity. The newcomer can accept Catholicism and join civilized society, but then he will lose his roots and will hardly be able to treat others and communicate with animals again.

The conflict in Thornton's unhurried picture is clearly drawn in the middle. The author fails to build a completed story with a climax in the final act. The last half an hour is agonizing. Neither Blanchett, nor the organicism of debutant Reed, nor the Australian expanses save the movie.