The Furnace (NR)

synopsis

Set in the 1890s gold rush of Western Australia, THE FURNACE is an unlikely hero's tale, navigating greed and the search for identity in a new land. This film illuminates the forgotten history of Australia's ‘Ghan' cameleers - predominantly Muslim and Sikh men from India, Afghanistan, and Persia - who traversed the nation's vast desert interior, forming unique bonds with local Aboriginal people. To escape a harsh existence and return home, a young Afghan cameleer partners with a mysterious bushman on the run with two 400oz Crown-marked gold bars. Together the unlikely pair must outwit a zealous police sergeant and his troopers in a race to reach a secret furnace - the one place where they can safely reset the bars to remove the mark of the Crown.