The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021) on Netflix
NR20211h 49m
In 1893, heavily pregnant Molly Johnson runs an isolated Snowy Mountains farm alone while her husband is away droving. A shackled Aboriginal fugitive, Yadaka, turns up wounded on her land.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.5/102,424 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
1893, in the Snowy Mountains. Molly Johnson is heavily pregnant and alone on a remote farm with her four children, keeping the place going while her husband Joe is away droving. A stray bull comes near the house and she shoots it. Nate Klintoff, the area's new police sergeant, and his sickly wife Louisa arrive at the homestead after losing their provisions while crossing the river. Molly feeds them and asks them to take her children into town until the baby is born and her eldest, Danny, can fetch supplies. A founding family's wife and children are found dead, and an Aboriginal man named Yadaka is blamed and wanted. Yadaka, shackled and wounded, is who she finds on her land.
Cast
- Malachi Dower-Robertsas Danny Johnson
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was Purcell’s debut as a director and writer, and the first Australian feature film to be written and directed by an Indigenous woman who also stars in the lead role.
- The character of Yadaka was inspired by Purcell’s own great-grandfather. Purcell reimagines Lawson’s story through an Indigenous feminist lens, drawing on her own lived experience and the stories of her ancestors.
