The New Boy

With the arrival of a mysterious nine-year-old Aboriginal boy (Aswan Reid), the lives of the denizens of a rural monastery in 1940s Australia slowly come out of balance. Secrets are uncovered and tensions are stretched to their breaking points as the boy begins to display otherworldly gifts, driving the head nun, Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett), to the brink of spiritual madness.The latest film by the prolific Warwick Thornton (who wrote, directed, and lensed this film), The New Boy meditates on the nuances of survival, belief, and collective joy in the face of some of colonialism’s worst efforts. The film paints a world where its inhabitants ride the edge of darkness and the divine and are forced to rely on each other to endure. Buttressed by powerhouse performances from Reid and Blanchett, Thornton’s vision of a new possibility for cross-cultural understanding and acceptance questions what angles we have not approached to heal the scars of struggle.

IMPORTANT: This film is not available with Open Captioning, and will be presented in Closed Captioning only. All film screenings on Friday, October 20, 2023 are FREE. Tickets can ONLY be collected on October 20, 2023 at the in-person imagineNATIVE Box Office located at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. No advance booking available. There is a limit of TWO tickets per person. This initiative has been made possible by the generous support of the TD Bank Group

Venue Address: TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3X5