I’ve found a really sweet review of “Boy” on The Hindu, the second-largest circulated daily English newspaper in India after Times of India. It’s interesting to see how different cultures receive this film and how “Boy” speaks to people in many different ways.

The reviewer saw the film at the IFFI, where it won the Special Jury Award (we wrote about it here).

Touching echoes
But the film that I found most endearing was one from New Zealand, simply called “Boy”, directed by Taika Waititi, about an aboriginal motherless boy, whose father is in jail. He fantasises that he is a loving parent with multiple accomplishments. But when his father returns after his release from jail, he painfully discovers instead that he is only a selfish lout. I work in Delhi with many children from the streets with similar stories, of fathers who betray them profoundly, with alcoholism, violence and above all by the absence of love. Like the “Boy” of the film, they deal with their pain and loss with spirit, resilience, humanity and a vulnerable early adulthood. Because this film told the story not just of an aboriginal boy in New Zealand, but my own children as well, this was the picture which most won my heart.

While I enjoyed the review, I think I got lost in translation. English isn’t my first language, so when I read that this story is about an aboriginal boy, it made me laugh and I got slightly offended on behalf of all the Maori. I usually relate the word ‘aboriginal’ to Indigenous Australians, but I’ve just learnt that it refers to indigenous peoples in general. So probably the author meant the indigenous people of New Zealand, i.e. the Maori. Well, at least I hope so! *haha*