I recently saw this at the 2008 Palm Springs International Short Fest. This comedy-drama is a story about a nine year old African boy, Joseph (Olutunji Ebun-Cole who has fled a war-torn nation and is experiencing his first day of school in Ireland and the natural difficulties of an outsider fitting in. Norma Sheahan is the teacher keeping order, Sinead Maguire is Hazel O'Hara the sympathetic classmate, and Fionn O'Shea and Simon O'Driscall are Seth Quinn and Christian Kelly the classroom bullies. This award winning short is the third short from writer/director Stephanie Green. Green adapted the story from the short story New Boy by novelist Roddy Doyle, best known for The Commitments, from his new book The Deportees and Other Stories. The story is told with flashbacks of Joseph's schooling in Africa. This is a good film with nice performances from the child actors and exasperated teacher and the central story moves along at a fast pace that the flashback scenes don't slow down resulting in an even balanced film. I would give this a 7.0 out of 10 and recommend it.
