Australian actors Guy Pearce, David Gulpilil and Jack Thompson will star in a film exploring the Northern Territory's "confronting" history.
High Ground, set in Arnhem Land in the 1920s, is fictitious but inspired by true events, director Stephen Johnson says.
It comes as the Territory deals with the fallout from an ABC's Four Corners program showing the mistreatment of Aboriginal youths in juvenile detention, with boys stripped naked, tear-gassed and held in solitary confinement.
NT Chief Minister Adam Giles says the film is "an important story that needs to be told, not just for the Northern Territory but Australia-wide."
Filming for High Ground will begin in a little over a year and it's set to be released in mid-2018.
"The movie is an action-thriller about the forgotten war in early Australia and the true recognition of Australia's first people," Mr Johnson said.
"It is about identity and the finding of one's roots, a real story of redemption."
