Cinema

Cate Blanchett co-stars with superb young newcomer Aswan Reid in Sweet Country director Warwick Thornton’s artful, fiercely political tale of spiritual worlds colliding in mid-century rural Australia.

The Australian Outback, 1940s: Renegade nun Sister Eileen (Blanchett) presides over Indigenous boys deliberately orphaned by the authorities. In her orphanage, no Indigenous values, language or practices are allowed. The arrival of a new boy (Reid) unsettles the monastery, as do his mysterious, perhaps supernatural, abilities – but further enliven Sister Eileen’s fervour for Christ to be his guide.

Featuring transfixing cinematography and a haunting score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, The New Boy is an engrossing, ambiguous study of spirituality, culture and colonisation that draws on Thornton’s own childhood experiences and a painful chapter in Australian history.