“The New Boy” is on the promotional trail ahead of its premiere on July 6 in Australia.
The film introduces Aswan Reid, as well as boasting top talent including Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair and Cate Blanchett.
Ahead of its wider local premiere, the film is screening tonight (June 7) at the Opening Night Gala of the Sydney Film Festival, with a few additional runs throughout the festival. “The New Boy” was also selected to screen at Cannes.
It is billed as a story of spirituality and survival set in 1940s Australia. Reid plays a brave young Aboriginal boy who is captured and sent off to a remote monastery, run by Sister Eileen (Blanchett).
Warwick Thornton (“Samson and Delilah”) wrote and directed the project, which has been described by Variety as an “ambitious, visually lustrous fable”.
Publicity for the film said: “Thornton’s elegant and concise storytelling is augmented with spectacular images and a uniformly superb cast – including a group of very promising young actors playing the boys at the monastery. But it is the magnetic on-screen presence of young Aswan Reid that astonishes.
“A film of great symbolism and impact, “The New Boy” finds Thornton at the height of his cinematic powers: it is intoxicating and magical.”
The film is presented by Screen Australia in association with Fremantle, Longbridge, South Australian Film Corporation and Screen NSW. It’s a Dirty Films and Scarlett Pictures production with Roadshow Films handling distribution.
Music for the film was done by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.
