The film Forty Thousand Horsemen told the story of the Australian Light Horse fighting in the Middle East during the First World War. It was directed by Charles Chauvel, who had very personal links to the story. His father, James Allan Chauvel, was a Major with the Desert Column from 1916 to 1919 and his uncle General Henry George Chauvel commanded the 1st Light Horse Brigade. Released in 1940, the film was a massive success at the box office, grossing the equivalent of $893,000 today in its first three weeks of release. This film still shows actors as Turkish prisoners on set at Kurnell.