“The Furnace” (MA) and a half
SET in WA in 1897, writer/director Roderick MacKay’s dramatic film tells a story about gold, camels, Islamist and Sikh cameleers, Chinese immigrants and crime.
Quite a mouthful of ingredients for the filmgoer to digest, but an example of Australian cinema at its best. The acting is top quality. The locations (shot around Kalbarri and Mt Magnet) are sere, dusty, with scanty vegetation, combining each in their unique way and despite lacking tenderness or gentleness, combining to give the film an ongoing beauty and emphasising the challenge that the outback throws in the face of all who seek to conquer it.