[3] Horvath's fictionalized version of this story is set in present-day America and, according to the director, was shot without a script over the course of roughly nine months with a minimal team traveling from New York City to Anchorage, Alaska.

Andreas Horvath's Lillian is a road movie across America, which serves up a history lesson on Native Americans, a state-of-the-nation assessment on rural living and an otherworldly thriller with an environmental undertone."

Where Michelangelo Antonioni was fascinated with the Black Panthers in Zabriskie Point, Horvath shows the racial divide with the treatment of Native Americans and the genocide that the modern-day United States is built upon.

"[7] In The Hollywood Reporter Deborah Young called Lillian "a fascinating walk through a mysterious land", adding that Andreas Horvath "combines his knowledge of the American Midwest and the Yukon in an enigmatic road movie — never was a term more descriptive — that is at once a portrait of female spirit and determination and a reflection on the loneliness at the heart of America today.

"[10] "Coupled with an extraordinary central performance from Patrycja Planik, beautifully intrusive cinematography from Horvath's and a sublime emotive score from the writer-director, undeniably stands Lillian as a profound cinematic venture.