Date watched: May 1, 2022
Date Reviewed: May 12, 2022
Review
A couple of weeks ago I went to a Meet the Filmmaker night to see Leah Purcell’s highly anticipated film ‘The Drover’s Wife’. It’s been a long time in the making with the trailer initially dropping last year. The session was followed by a Q&A with Purcell herself and I find her to be such an impressive woman.
The Drover’s Wife is a re-telling of Henry Lawson’s short story of the same name, taking it from a romanticised view of 1890s Australia into a more truthful representation of the times. Purcell has quite a history with this story which she first evolved into a play and then a novel. During the Q&A session Purcell also spoke about her close personal connection to the text by bringing along her copy of the short story that her mother used to read to her when she was a child.
This film is the next chapter in the telling of this story which brings opportunities to explore some of the other characters in further depth. It’s also the first Australian film to be written, directed, and stared by an Indigenous woman.
What stands out for me is the beautiful use of country, filmed in and around the Snowy Mountains area of New South Wales, the viewer is easily settled into the 1890s where the vast distance of the land adds to the feeling of isolation. I had that feeling when I went to visit the Port Arthur historic site many years ago, both during the day and night. The sense of isolation in this film is a different one as it isn’t a story of a convict site but the film has this ability to draw on you in emotionally and that feeling I had come rushing back to me.
There is also a lot of use of time-lapse footage across the film which adds a visually striking element. The opening scene begins with this beautiful mist covering the land and to hear the back story post film really added to the magic. Purcell explained that they had time-lapse cameras set up and not only got this shot by pure luck, that this was the mist that the Indigenous people of the time would have used as a sign that winter was approaching and it was time to head north. To her it made it feel like she had permission to tell this story and even created a script change to add a reference to this fact.
Leah Purcell’s performance in the film is both emotionally evoking and strong, in her words it has also been a rather physical role to play. There are many layers to the character Molly Johnson which are built over the course of the story and the performance how she holds herself with all that she has to contend with will have you connected to the character in a way you don’t realise as the final scenes play out.
It was also a terrific supporting cast and I liked the introduction of the character Yadaka played by Rob Collins. The scenes between Purcell and Collins are wonderful to watch, they match up really well together. Each command presence without stealing the scene from each other.
The Drover’s Wife is a beautiful piece of story telling, great acting, and visually stunning. There are some confronting scenes and some emotional ones. The film does leave room for unanswered/unexplored areas and this has been done on purpose. It gives the viewer the opportunity to flesh out some of this world for themselves as well as a creative opportunity given a limited series is also in the works!
Whether this makes it into the classics of Australian cinema, time will tell but I think it would sit nicely as part of school curriculum, perhaps alongside the original short story. I didn’t have the opportunity to study the short story at school myself, there were a few at the Q&A who had. Purcell mentioned that some schools in NSW have started to introduce it again and I think this film would bring a nice balance in that regard.
For this reason I’m calling this a must see. I believe that consuming art by women and women of colour provides a perspective that has not often been reflected on screen and I for one think there should be more of it!
I’ll leave you with a final thought from the Q&A where Leah Purcell talked so passionately about this character and the legend she wants to bring to life: “Let’s knock Ned Kelly off his pedestal and put Molly Johnson there”.