[citation needed][3] It achieved critical and international success when it was released in 1986, but gained only a lukewarm reception in Australia.

[4] Trilby (Kristina Nehm) is a young Aboriginal woman living with her people on the outskirts of everyday Australian society.

Trilby encourages her mother (Justine Saunders) to apply for a Housing Commission home being built in an area inhabited mostly by wealthier white families.

With xenophobic neighbors casting a constant judgmental eye, Trilby and her boyfriend, Phil (Ernie Dingo), attempt to find happiness in their new environment.

Beresford had been interested in making a film from the novel since he read it in the mid-1970s, buying his copy at a second-hand book shop in London.