It follows a young Aboriginal Australian orphan boy who is brought into a Christian monastery, run by a renegade nun, where he begins to question his faith and loyalty to his heritage.
Eileen is supported in her work and her deception by two Aboriginal individuals, a fellow nun who goes by the nickname "Sister Mum" and a man named George; both of whom are assimilated to Christian beliefs.
Sister Mum is implied to have converted to Christianity due to the loss of her two children, while George lives a secure life at the monastery.
Throughout this process, the New Boy is shown to possess mysterious supernatural abilities to conjure small balls of light and to heal sick animals and humans.
This behaviour includes him taking down the statue to play with it, "heal" it from its crucifixion wounds, and dress it up; it is eventually found by Eileen and put back in the church by George.
Though he still doesn't fully understand Christianity, the New Boy accepts the baptism but immediately realises that this has now permanently destroyed his supernatural abilities.
As V-day arrives, he tentatively starts living his new life, experiencing acceptance from everyone again, but leaving his future uncertain and his heritage now torn between two vastly different worlds.
The original idea for the story arose in around 2005, when filmmaker Warwick Thornton wrote a script which drew on his experiences in a Benedictine monastery boarding school as a boy, developed with long-time producer Kath Shelper.
Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair joined the cast, with Blanchett serving as a producer under her Dirty Films banner.
The website's consensus reads: "The New Boy bites off more than it can comfortably chew, but this heady exploration of faith and cultural tensions has an ethereal allure.
[15] The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney also praised Reid's performance, as well as "the visual power of Thornton's gorgeous compositions...[which] remains transfixing" and found the film overall "engrossing, even when the story strays from its path".