A New Norcia story, indigenous boy, traditions and Catholic Spirituality.
You might like to see the currently-released film, The New Boy, especially of interest to MSC and those who value Heart Spirituality. As we watch, we remember our ission activity with First Nations peoples in the Northern Territory. We might remember like tales when we think of children on Melville Island, the marriage customs on Bathurst Island, life in Central Australia.
A review highlighting themes, issues…
THE NEW BOY, 2023, 116 minutes. Cate Blanchet, Aswan Reid, Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair, Shane Brady, Tyrique Brady. Directed by Warwick Thornton.
An intriguing film, colonial attitudes, First Nations people, religion and faith. As a realistic representation of Australian history, not so much. Writer-director, Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah, Sweet Country) references his own boyhood experience with the monks at Western Australia’s, New Norcia, the architecture of the convent, the agricultural background, winter, olives… As a probing of the impact of missionaries (especially Catholics and nuns), quite an allegory to be explored – the lives of the indigenous people, especially focusing on the new boy of the title (about 11 years old, never named though the orphan boys initially called him Darkie, a wonderful screen presence by Aswan Reid). No explanation of his origins except the opening where he throttles a policeman, is taken into custody, in a bag, dumped at the convent at night. There are two indigenous characters at the convent, Sister Mum, the benign cook, and George, the taciturn handyman, (played by veterans Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair).
Ordinary audiences may be bewildered and/or put off by the focus on Jesus, prayer, piety and devotion and, above all, the large new crucifix, the excited arrival, elevated in the chapel and the nails hammered in. (The final long-held image of the film is the crucifix). But, for religious audiences, there is a fascination with how the new boy responds to the crucifix, identifying with Jesus, embracing, literally, the figure of Jesus, taking him down from the cross, tender towards him, removing the nails, the boy identifying with Jesus, even to wounded hands, becoming what we might call a Christ figure. Which highlights the challenge of the church and the Mission to the indigenous people and their embrace of Jesus in Christian practice and the meeting of Dreaming and lore and the Gospels.
This is embodied in Sister Eileen (and a worldwide audience wanting to see a Cate Blanchett film). Promotion refers to her as a “”renegade nun”. Not really, quite misleading. She is definitely eccentric, deeply committed in her way, sometimes mentally disturbed, sometimes drinking, devoutly prayerful, the crucifix. She exercises power over the small group of under-12 orphan boys, (with a World War II setting) but combines orders and discipline with kindness. And the boys respond. As does the new boy though he is often bewildered (sleeping under the bed, mystified by spoons for porridge, not speaking except a few of his own words, but, ultimately, his word is a repeated Amen. And, mysteriously, he has the power to create fire in his hand, a kind of numinous link. There is no priest, Sister Eileen taking over from Dom Peter, interpreting rules, performing baptisms, stole and chasuble, even the new boy, cleaning and dressing up, but the loss of his power of fire. She has set up her own church but relies on her piety. Cate Blanchet as usual, a tour de force presence. So, a 21st-century perspective by a top filmmaker, provocative on colonial issues, on missionary issues, the consequences, but relying on traditions and art of Catholicism to evoke deeper social and spiritual responses.
