VENICE 2020: JIM BROADBENT, HELEN MIRREN SHINE IN THE DUKE ART HEIST DRAMEDY, DAVID WENHAM, AHMED MALEK IN 19TH CENTURY AUSTRALIAN WESTERN THE FURNACE

We are reporting from Venice Film Festival today where two of the films I wrote about before received praise this week. THE DUKE, with Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, has aired at Bienalle this week, lauded as

The Duke will hit UK cinemas this November

very moving and heartwarming, and will arrive into cinemas in November. In this fun true story, he plays a man who made the headlines in 1961 after Goya’s painting of the Duke of Wellington was stolen from the National Gallery in London.

 The Roger Michell Movie Is Set
in 1961, when Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent), a 60 year old taxi driver, stole Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in

The incident was, and still is, the only art theft in National Gallery's history

London. He sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly. What

Kempton's heist was inspired by his fierce belief that war widows and old-age pensioners should not be forced to pay the BBC licence fee.

happened next became the stuff of legend. An uplifting true story about a good man who set out to change the world and managed to save his marriage. Matthew Goode and Fionn Whitehead also star.

Also praised this week at the Lido, was another period set movie, this time an Australian Western THE FURNACE in which David Wenham plays a thief who joins forces with an Afghan cameleer. Roderick Mackay's debut

David Wenham and Ahmed Malek play the lead roles in The Furnace

feature was applauded for depicting a wonderful mix of cultures in the 19th century Australia and beautiful desert landscapes vistas which dominate the movie.

     What's The Story About?
Set during Western Australia's early gold rush in the 1890s, the film revolves around an Afghan cameleer (Ahmed Malek, thousands of cameleers were imported by The Crown in the mid 19th century to transport goods across the

The film was shot around Mount Magnet in Australia's Midwest

inhospitable country. They developed a kinship with the Aborigines to find better routes) and a bushman (David Wenham) racing to melt down gold

The film does not have a cinematic release date yet

bars at a secret furnace while being pursued by a police sergeant! The richness of different cultures and religions in the film is seen also in the fact that the characters speak English, Pashto and the local Yamatji Badimia language.