The film is very loosely based on Rose Tremain’s novel Trespass. Writer/director Clio Barnard wrote an initial screenplay that was much closer to the book, which focuses on two sets of of siblings in their sixties who become involved in a property dispute in France. After the initial draft, her producers encouraged her to make the story her own so that the final film, which focuses on only one set of siblings in their thirties and is set in England is only very loosely related to the book.
After receiving news of her father’s death, Alice, a young travelling sheep-shearer, tentatively decides to return to the dilapidated family house of her childhood, in muddy North Yorkshire. Surprisingly, it’s been already fifteen years since Alice left behind an ailing dad and her older brother, Joe, to wander about from farm to farm; however, this cold and heavy homecoming will be Alice’s last chance to reclaim the land she believes was once promised to her. But, now, on one hand, there’s Joe’s resentment paired with a rancorous rivalry between siblings–while, on the other hand–fleeting mournful shadows of a troubled past permeate the walls of an imperfect prize. What will it take to keep the haunting memories at bay?—Nick Riganas
