Stolen Generations – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

THE NEW BOY – Review by T. J. Callahan

May 20, 2025May 21, 2025 T. J. Callahan Aswan Reid, cate blanchett, Deborah Mailman, Stolen Generations, The New Boy, Warwick Thornton

Cate Blanchett is back, wearing the black habit of a nun who runs a monastery and orphanage on the Australian outback in The New Boy. Blanchett is Sister Eileen, charged with “ breeding out the Black” of young, parentless aboriginal boys and turning them towards the White man’s Christianity. She is a God-fearing woman who believes she is doing the Lord’s work, but when a new boy is dumped on her doorstep in the middle of the night, he tests the faith of everyone in the monastery.

Festivals Reviews

THE MOOGAI (Sydney FF 2024) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

June 10, 2024June 9, 2024 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Aboriginal Australian, Jon Bell, Meyne Wyatt, moogai, Shari Sebbens, Stolen Generations, Sydney FF 2024, The Moogai

Sarah is a successful lawyer, an Aboriginal Australian who lives with her husband Fergus, daughter, and newborn baby. Despite resisting the superstitions of her birth mother Ruth with whom she has a complex, at times difficult relationship, Sarah’s increasing feeling that something is trying to steal her baby escalates. She is forced to accept the reality that – despite her level-headedness – a nightmarish folkloric figure called the “moogai” is the culprit, and that Ruth may know more than Sarah had previously given her credit for. Woven into this journey, Sarah and Fergus also face the brutal reality that as comfortable as they may be in their urban, middle-class life, racism in Australia is as relentless as any monster.

Reviews

FARAWAY DOWNS – Review by Susan Granger

January 10, 2024February 1, 2024 Susan Granger Aboriginal, australian films, Baz Luhrmann, Brandon Walters, Bryan Brown, David Gulpilil, David Wenham, disney, Hugh Jackman, hulu, limited series, nicole kidman, Stolen Generations, Torres Strait Islander, Ursula Yovich

Do you recall a 2008 Baz Luhrmann film called Australia? Starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, I found it an exciting, epic adventure but – at the box-office – it went nowhere, perhaps because it touched too superficially on that country’s notorious Aboriginal race issue. So resourceful Luhrmann recently re-edited it into a six-episode limited series called Faraway Downs, telling a compelling tale as viewed through the eyes of Nullah (Brandon Walters), an enchanting half-Aboriginal outcast child – and adding nearly an hour of never-before-seen footage.

Reviews

THE NEW BOY – Review by Nadine Whitney

July 5, 2023July 9, 2023 Nadine Whitney Aswan Reid, cate blanchett, Deborah Mailman, Stolen Generations, The New Boy, Warwick Thornton

Any film by indigenous Australian director Warwick Thornton is vital to understanding aboriginal culture. His WWII-set drama The New Boy, features Cate Blanchett as a nun operating an outback orphanage. We witness a clash of cultures where the dominant white Australian belief system erodes the specificity of aboriginal culture. The central tension in the film is faith and spirituality where even those who believe they are acting in the best interests of indigenous people participate in an arrogant paternalism which denies the power of one of the oldest cultures on earth.