In 1940s Australia, a 9-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy arrives in the middle of the night at an isolatedmonastery run by a renegade nun. Unlike the other orphans, who are given Anglo-Saxon names, thenew boy remains “the new boy”, and his difference becomes more and more apparent as his unusualpowers are revealed. Soon, his presence begins to disrupt the delicately balanced world that the nunshave carefully constructed.
Inspired by the director’s adolescence at a Christian boarding school, this beautifully shot film is remarkable for the portrait it paints of a young man in the making who, in the face of adversity, resistsand imposes his difference.
« Un témoignage puissant sur les valeurs fondamentales de la diversité et du multiculturalisme. »
Mathieu Payan www.abusdecine.com
San Sebastian FF 2023, 2023, es
Golden Frog,, Camerimage, 2023, pl
Best Non-U.S. Release, Online Film Critics Society Award,, 2024, au
Warwick Thornton
Originally from an Aboriginal background, Warwick Thornton spent his teenage years in New
Norcia, a monastic town in Western Australia. Back in Alice Spring, he worked as a DJ at a radio
station before completing his studies as a cameraman at the Australian Film Television and Radio
School in 1997. He worked as a cinematographer on many shoots, while also directing short films.
Green Bush won awards at the Berlinale and Sundance in 2005, and the next, Nana (2007), at the
Berlinale and the Melbourne International Film Festival. His first feature film, Samson and Delilah, was
presented at Un Certain Regard in 2009 and won the Caméra d’or.
