''The Furnace'' is a 2020 Australian

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Roderick MacKay Roderick John Mackay (20 July 1874 - 24 November 1956) was Dean of Edinburgh from 1939 to 1954. He was educated at Hatfield College, Durham. He was awarded a Theological Scholarship in 1899, the Barry Scholarship in 1901, and won the Theolo ...

. Set in the

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

n outback during the goldrushes of the 1890s, the film's characters include "Afghan" cameleers, a white gold thief, and local Aboriginal people. It was nominated for several

AACTA Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, ...

Cast

Synopsis

The film is set during the

Western Australian gold rushes In the latter part of the nineteenth century, discoveries of gold at a number of locations in Western Australia caused large influxes of prospectors from overseas and interstate, and classic gold rushes. Significant finds included: * Halls Cr ...

of the 1890s, and its characters represent some of the "Afghan" cameleers (who actually came from India, Persia, and other parts of the Middle East, and belonged to Islamic, Sikh and Hindu faiths) who brought their camel trains to help open up the Australian outback from the mid-19th century. Two young Afghan cameleers, Hanif and Jundah, form a friendship with an Aboriginal hunter, Woorak. Hanif is trying to find an illegal furnace so that he can melt two bars of stolen gold, which he acquired by chance after coming across the sole survivor of a group massacre, Mal. The two men have to compromise in order to survive the journey through the

Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

, while evading capture by Gold Squad officers.

Production

The film was directed by Roderick MacKay, his debut as director. Several of the Aboriginal actors speak their

Badimaya language Badimaya (sometimes written Badimia) is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is a member of the Kartu subgroup of the Pama–Nyungan family, spoken by the Badimaya people of the Mid West region of Western Australia. Badimaya is a critica ...

, one of many

Aboriginal Australian languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

which are

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

. It was filmed in

Yamatji Yamatji (or Yamaji) is a Wajarri word that has at least three different meanings: * a member of the Watjarri people * any Aboriginal Australian person from the Murchison region of Western Australia * any group made up of members of different I ...

country in what is now known as the Mid West region, in the Shire of Mount Magnet (

Badimaya The Badimaya people (also written Badimia) are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mid West region of Western Australia. Country Traditional Badimaya country was calculated by Norman Tindale to encompass approximately , and is bordered by ...

) and Kalbarri (

Nhanda The Nhanda people, also spelt Nanda, Nhunda, Nhanta, and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people who live in the mid-west region of Western Australia around the mouth of the Murchison River. Language The traditional language of t ...

). ''The Furnace'' was produced by Southern Light Films, Meaning Maker and The Koop, and distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Umbrella Films and internationally by Arclight Films.

Release

''The Furnace'' premiered at the

77th Venice Film Festival The 77th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 2 to 12 September 2020, albeit in a "more restrained format" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Australian actress Cate Blanchett was appointed as the President of the Jury. '' The Ties ...

in September 2020, the only Australian film selected for the festival.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of based on critics, with an average rating of .

David Stratton David James Stratton (born 10 September 1939) is an English-Australian award-winning film critic, as both a journalist and interviewer, film historian and lecturer and television personality and producer. Life and career Born in Trowbridge, ...

wrote "If the film has a flaw it's that it doesn't quite reach the satisfying climax it promises; it's beautiful, even powerful, but rather bleak". According to Jake Wilson of ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', "MacKay is not lacking in talent, but for a first-time director he may have taken on a little too much. While the scattered quality of the storytelling may be partly deliberate, a bigger problem is the lack of consistent tone". Writing for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' David Rooney commented that the film "Smolders effectively, even if it doesn't quite achieve maximum heat". Xan Brooks of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' called ''The Furnace'' "as tough as old leather and as unadorned as cow hide", while ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

''s Jay Weissberg called the film "An enjoyably absorbing experience". Lance Bakare wrote in ''

'' that he hoped that the film would help to highlight some forgotten history of Australia, giving the film 4 out of 5 stars.

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Furnace, The 2020s adventure drama films Films set in the Outback Australian Western (genre) films 2020s English-language films