The Furnace | Lotterywest Films
Perth Festival is thrilled to present WA writer-director Roderick MacKay’s remarkable...
Monday, 30 November 2020 to Sunday, 6 December 2020
8:00 pm
Venue
Somerville Auditorium
35, The University of Western Australia, Stirling Hwy, Crawley WA 6009
+61 8 6488 7092
Perth Festival
Organizer
Perth Festival is thrilled to present WA writer-director Roderick MacKay’s remarkable debut feature for the first time, in the State in which in it was made – fresh from its triumphant world premiere at the 2020 Venice Film Festival.
Featuring rising Egyptian star Ahmed Malek and Australian screen legend David Wenham, The Furnace runs for one week only at the beautiful outdoor venue UWA Somerville ahead of its national release on 10 December 2020. It is the perfect film to start the Lotterywest Films program ahead of a uniquely Western Australian Perth Festival in 2021.
Set during WA’s 1890s gold rush and filmed in the ruggedly beautiful Yamatji Badimaya country around Mount Magnet in the Mid West, The Furnace received major production investment from Screen Australia and was supported through the Western Australian Regional Film Fund through Royalties for Regions, Screenwest and Lotterywest, which also is the Principal Partner of Perth Festival.
This unlikely hero’s tale navigates greed and the search for identity in a new land. A young Afghan cameleer (Malek) falls in with a mysterious bushman (Wenham) on the run with two stolen Crown gold bars. Pursued by a zealous police sergeant and his troopers, they must race to a secret furnace where they can reset the bars to remove the mark of the Crown.