Wednesday 10 March 2021
10am, 2pm, 5pm, 7.30pm
Directed by Roderick Mackay
Australian
Western/Drama
116 mins
Western Australia 1897. To escape the outback, a young Afghan cameleer falls in with a mysterious bushman on the run with stolen Crown gold. Together they must outwit a zealous police sergeant and his troopers in a race to reach a secret furnace, run by Chinese gold miners, where they can safely reset the bars to remove the Crown mark.
The film is an unlikely hero’s tale, navigating greed and the search for identity in a new land. It illuminates the forgotten history of Australia’s “Ghan” cameleers, predominantly Muslim and Sikh men from India, Afghanistan and Persia, who opened up the nation’s desert interior, thereby forming unique bonds with local Indigenous people.
Reviews
The film tells an engrossing story of a little-known chapter in colonial history, unfolding across the ruggedly beautiful desert landscapes of Western Australia – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Wenham’s flea-bitten, hardened codger makes the right contrast with rising star Malek’s deeply sympathetic figure, who quietly projects sensitivity roughed-up by misfortune, kindness coated in melancholy. – Jay Weissberg, Variety