40 Acres

Danielle Deadwyler and Michael Greyeyes star in R.T. Thorne’s 40 Acres, a thriller set in a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce. The film made the TIFF 2024 “Canada’s Top Ten” list, and was recently named one of the “51 Best Canadian Films of All Time” by the Hollywood Reporter. Descended from African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the American Civil War, Hailey (Deadwyler) lives on her generational farm with her Indigenous partner Galen (Greyeyes) and their blended family of four children. Thanks to the farm, the family is surviving – and thriving – and Hailey will do anything to safeguard the land against those hell bent on taking it. Watch your six, shoot first,” she says. But her son (Kataem O’Connor) jeopardizes their safety when he secretly hides a beautiful young woman (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) on their property. Also starring are Leenah Robinson as Galen’s daughter, Jaeda LeBlanc and Haile Amare as the couple’s shared children, and Elizabeth Saunders as the one person Hailey trusts outside her family. The film’s title is a nod to the US Federal government’s promise to give freed slaves 40 acres of land after the Civil War, only to rescind that promise during the Reconstruction era. The film marks the feature debut of Toronto director R.T. Thorne, known for his award-winning work on TV series (The Porter, Utopia Falls). Thorne co-wrote the script with Glenn Taylor, based on a story by Thorne and Lora Campbell. A Canadian production produced by Jennifer Holness, the film was shot in Northern Ontario’s Sudbury area – on a stunning farm in a remote location, far from roads, which creates an atmosphere of seclusion. The film is in English and Cree with English subtitles. 40 Acres is being released in Canada by Mongrel Media.

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