''Jessica'' is an Australian

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

miniseries based on the historical novel by Bryce Courtenay. Originally broadcast by Australia's Network Ten in 2004 and set in the

Australian outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

at the turn of the twentieth century, this family based drama follows a young woman who is unjustly institutionalised. Jessica won a 2005 Logie award for best mini-series or telemovie, plus two awards at the 2004 Chicago International Film Festival - one of them for the direction of Australian

Peter Andrikidis Peter Andrikidis is an Australian film and television director, and producer. Early life and education Andrikidis went to the Sydney high school Drummoyne Boys High School in the mid-1970s, where he made a small film called "Nemesis". He grad ...

Plot

The Bergman sisters could not be more different. Jessica (

Leeanna Walsman Leeanna Walsman is an Australian actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Zam Wesell in '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' (2002), for playing Carly Bishop in the Australian film '' Looking for Alibrandi'' (2000), fo ...

) is a feisty

tomboy A tomboy is a term for a girl or a young woman with masculine qualities. It can include wearing androgynous or unfeminine clothing and actively engage in physical sports or other activities and behaviors usually associated with boys or men. W ...

who loves to help her father work their

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bo ...

. Her beautiful sister Meg (

Megan Dorman Megan Dorman (born 1977) is an Irish-born Australian actress who is best known for her role as Katherine Ingram in the series, Head Start. She had a small role in ''Queen of the Damned'', playing Maudy, one of Lestat's band members. Dorman als ...

) is eagerly being groomed by her mother Hester ( Lisa Harrow) to be the perfect wife, so that she can

marry Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

her way out of poverty. However, when the man, Jack Thomas (

Oliver Ackland Oliver Ackland (born 9 November 1979) is an Australian actor. Biography In 2009 he was awarded the inaugural Heath Ledger scholarship by Australians in Film. Ackland starred in Ben Lucas' ''Wasted on the Young'', which premiered at the 2010 ...

), who Meg has set her sights on falls in love with Jessica and gets her pregnant, Hester schemes to wrench the couple apart to claim Jessica's son, Joey for Meg. Later she commits Jessica to a

mental asylum The lunatic asylum (or insane asylum) was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. The fall of the lunatic asylum and its eventual replacement by modern psychiatric hospitals explains the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry ...

. It is here that Jessica receives news of her lover's

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

and almost loses hope, but after enlisting the help of Mr. Runche (

Sam Neill Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's near-50 year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one o ...

), a down and out lawyer battling

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

, she is eventually released. Years later, it is the reformed Runche who gives Jessica the courage to fight for the return of her child. Eventually Meg and Hester call an uneasy truce with Jessica, and allow her to play a role in Joey's life as his aunt. Jessica later dies from a snake bite and the film ends with Joey (aged 16) visiting Jessica's grave.

External links

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Jessica at Power
Network 10 original programming 2000s Australian television miniseries 2004 Australian television series debuts 2004 Australian television series endings English-language television shows 2000s Australian drama television series {{australia-tv-prog-stub