The Western Australian gold rush of the 1890s provides a racially charged canvas for writer-director Roderick MacKay's debut, about a young Afghan camel herder's quest for deliverance.

Following in the horseshoe prints of Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country and Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang, debuting feature writer-director Roderick MacKay continues to mine the classic archetypes and tropes of the Western to explore the complex cross-cultural historical threads of Australian identity in The Furnace. While the simmering threat of violence could have been dialed up into more visceral climactic set-pieces, the film tells an engrossing story of a little-known chapter in colonial history, unfolding across the ruggedly beautiful desert landscapes of Western Australia.