Synopsis

Set in the 1890s in the central desert region of Australia, Seremades tells the tale of Jila who is conceived when her Afghan cameleer father wins her Aboriginal mother in a card game.

Raised initially in an Aboriginal community, Jila, on the death of her mother, is moved to a nearby Lutheran mission where she befriends the pastor's son Johann. Jila's father, keen to reunite with his daughter, trades with the Lutheran Minister who exchanges Jila for the price of a pig (which the Afghan, a follower of Islam, is loathe to transport).

Jila reaches adulthood under the strict mores of her father's remote Islamic community. On the brink of an arranged marriage to a significantly older holy man in the Ghan Camp, Johann reappears in Jila's life and the battle for Jila's freedom begins.