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Producer Timothy White on Venice Film ‘The Furnace’ and Diversity in Australian Industry
Christopher Vourlias When settlers began opening up the wild frontier of Western Australia in the 19th century, they relied heavily on immigrant cameleers from India, Afghanistan, and Persia. The predominantly Muslim and Sikh group, commonly referred to as “Ghans,” were instrumental in settling the Outback, but their contributions to the formation of modern-day Australia have largely been scrubbed from history.“The Furnace” is first-time writer-director Roderick MacKay’s attempt to shed light on that little-known past, with the story of a young man from Afghanistan who falls in with a mysterious bushman on the run from the law with stolen gold.
