Synopsis

The Furnace, set in the 1890s gold rush of Western Australia, 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, who were 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.

Filmed and Post Produced in Western Australia on the Traditional Country of the Yamatji Badimia, Yamatji Nanda & Noongar Whadjuk peoples