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.
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