40 Acres: TIFF 2024 Review - That Shelf

A plague has wiped out 98% of the world’s animal population, leading to death and civil war. With food scarce and capitalist institutions collapsed, farmland has become the most valuable resource. Something a select few have and many would kill to obtain. It is in this post-apocalyptic setting that director R.T. Thorne’s thrilling feature debut 40 Acres takes place.

The crops may be worth more than gold, but it is the seeds of distrust that Thorne’s film is interested in.

Former soldier Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler) has little trust in those outside of her electric fence encased farm. Outside of Augusta (Elizabeth Saunders), a former marine and farmer she banters with over the radio, while keeping tabs on what is occurring on other nearby farms, her world consists of her partner Galen (Michael Greyeyes, who brings the right amount of levity to the role) and their children. A blended unit, she is Black and he is Indigenous, their home at times seems like a well-oiled military machine rather than your typical family unit. Isolated from others, they will do whatever it takes to stop whoever dares to trespass on their land.

While Hailey and Galen have created a comfortable life for the family, consisting of daily chores that range from tending crops to ammunition inventory to weapons training, not everyone is happy with the current predicament. Her eldest child Emanuel (Kata O’Connor) is a young man who yearns for a life beyond their fortified walls. His embers of desire for connection turn into a raging flame when he spots a mysterious young woman, Dawn (Milcania Diaz-Rojas), swimming in the river while in the woods one day.

While Hailey’s survival of the fittest mentally begins to clash with Emanuel’s beliefs that there is strength in numbers and community, a great threat is lurking nearby in the darkness slowly g. A group of individuals who have embraced cannibalism have begun infiltrating farms in the surrounding area. Unsure of who they can trust, Hailey’s tight run ship soon springs a leak when Emanuel finds a wounded Dawn lurking around their perimeter and decides to taker her in unbeknownst to his mom.

Playing with the audiences and Hailey’s paranoia around those deemed the “other,” Thorne constructs a thrilling exploration of isolation and the power of connection. 40 Acres is a tense and action-packed feast that is delicious from begin to end. Setting the tone immediately with an opening sequence that emphasizes the Freeman clan’s military precision, the film is full of edge of your seat moments. Whether cloaking the screen in darkness and using the brief burst of gunfire for light or creating a sense of pending dread via a blood trail near an overturned ATV, Thorne knows how to build and sustain tension.

For all its thrilling moments, at its heart, 40 Acres is a gripping examination of the ways fear, and the desire to protect our loved ones, can inadvertently trap us in an isolating box. Through Deadwyler’s brilliant turn as the steely Hailey, the film effectively touches on the complexities of motherhood. Specifically, the ways parents then inadvertently clip their children’s wings when they most feel the need to fly.

Thorne ensures that one understands that Hailey’s concerns are rooted in more than the dangers lurking outside her front door. Weaving in subtle commentary that touches on topics ranging from colonialism to the systemic treatment of Black and Indigenous people, while also showing how their respective cultures have learned to thrive harmoniously in the Freeman home, Thorne makes the former soldier a complex character fueled by genuine emotion. In capturing the contrasting ideologies between Hailey and Emanuel, the film emphasizes the importance of community. As her son questions at one point, how does one survive without other people.

Anchored by strong work from the ensemble cast and wonderful cinematography by Jeremy Benning, which makes the post-apocalyptic landscape equally beautiful and terrifying, Thorne’s film is full of vigour.

An entertaining edge of your seat thriller, 40 Acres is one the year’s must-see films.

40 Acres screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Get more coverage from this year’s festival here.