The trailer for Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story sees Bill Mail and his wife, Susan, rescuing a starving wild otter that swims onto their jetty in remote Scotland. The animal becomes a new member of their family and gives the couple a renewed purpose in life.
Charlie Hamilton directs the rescue film from National Geographic and Silverback Films. It follows Billy, Susan and their devoted sheepdog, Jade, as they slowly restore the desperate female otter named Molly to health.
“Molly came into our life when we needed her most, and she opened our eyes again,” Susan Mail says at one point in the trailer as she and Billy are shown playing with and feeding their lovable, yet unlikely friend. “I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. But I’m all she’s got,” Billy adds as the two-minute video reveals how his and Molly’s devotion to each other saved them both.
Shot in 4K, the trailer also reveals the wild and spectacular nature of the Shetland islands as varied sea life and migratory birds come to feed along its ragged shorelines. Scottish composer Erland Cooper’s soaring score for the documentary hints at the end of the trailer that Billy and Molly have to part ways as the noble otter is seen to freely swim again in wild nature.
Jeff Wilson produced Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story, which will stream on Disney+ and Hulu on May 7, a day after its National Geo bow. Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey, Tom McDonald and Janet Vissering executive produce.
“Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story is an inspiring story that we hope will encourage viewers to pause and reconnect with the world around them,” National Geographic’s executive vp of global factual and unscripted content Tom McDonald said in a statement of the uplifting film about the value of communion of people and natural wildlife.
Molly lays in a rope coil, where she often sleeps.
National Geographic/Johnny Rolt
Billy and Molly sit in Billy’s rowing boat in the sea just off West Shetland.
National Geographic/Johnny Rolt
