Due for release in 2021, The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson is the film adaptation of Leah Purcell’s highly acclaimed stage play. Described as a “searing Western thriller”, the film is a reimagining of Henry Lawson’s classic short story The Drover’s Wife.. Set in 1893, it centres on the heavily pregnant Molly Johnson (Purcell) and her children who struggle in isolation to survive the harsh Australian landscape after her husband leaves to go droving sheep in the high country.
“Leah Purcell has flipped this settler colonialism story on its head and turned it in to a call to arms by declaring war on Australia’s historical amnesia in respect of the Frontier Wars, misogyny and the myth of egalitarianism.”
Oombarra Productionss. and Bunya Productions.
‘The Drover’s Wife’ story has been with me most of my life, since I was a small child. But to be able to now bring this classic Australian story to the big screen and reimagine it with an Indigenous heart and soul at its core has been an honor and a privilege.
Leah Purcell