AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Life on a farm can be tough. There's a lot of backbreaking work that needs to get done, no matter the weather or how tired you are. But in "40 Acres," a homesteading family has to deal with far more than pests and storms. The Freemans, a mixed Black and Indigenous family, are living a bleak future where resources are scarce and predators are many. Starring Danielle Deadwyler, Michael Greyeyes and Kataem O'Connor, "40 Acres" is written and directed by R.T. Thorne, and he joins us from Toronto. R.T. Thorne, thank you so much for being with us.
RT THORNE: Great pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
RASCOE: So let's start with the title. I mean, "40 Acres" - that's obviously a play on the 40 acres and a mule, which was meant to be sort of a promise to African Americans who were freed in the South after the Civil War. Tell us about the family in your film - the Freemans - and how they came to live on that farm in Canada.
THORNE: Yeah. I mean, the title is definitely a connection to the - you know, the broken promises to formerly enslaved people. I'm paying tribute, really, to a lot of the Black settlers that had to travel up through the Underground Railroad and were able to come to Canada and establish their legacies here.
RASCOE: So the Freemans, they are actually the descendants of slaves who escaped and came up to Canada to establish his farm.
THORNE: Correct. Yes, yeah.
RASCOE: And Danielle Deadwyler, who plays Hailey Freeman, she's this very tough matriarch running this blended family with an iron fist. Here's a clip of her.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "40 ACRES")
DANIELLE DEADWYLER: (As Hailey Freeman) Sarge is taking Danis on a depot run tomorrow. I want you with him.
KATAEM O'CONNOR: (As Emanuel Freeman) Isn't going to the depot, like, a father-daughter right of passage type of thing?
DEADWYLER: Look, this farm, Manny, that's all we got in the entire world. And I ain't about to lose it 'cause you and your sisters ain't got a lick of perspective. So when you're told to go with your stepfather and your sister to watch they back, the only words I should be hear coming out of your mouth is what?
O'CONNOR: (As Emanuel Freeman) Yes, ma'am.
RASCOE: Hey, she's pretty tough on her son, Manny. He's played by Kataem O'Connor. Tell us about that dynamic.
THORNE: It's something that is an echo of a relationship that I have with my mother coming up. In particular, she was a Trinidadian immigrant and came to Canada to try to create a better life for us. And she faced a lot of hardship, a lot of discrimination, and had to sort of form her armor with which to move through the world. And she passed along a lot of her knowledge and a lot of her understanding of the world to us and was very strict. Don't get me wrong. I'm not calling - my mom was not a military killer.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yeah. Yeah.
THORNE: Let me just make sure that's clear - but the strictness and the adherence to an understanding of discipline and knowing our history. You know, Hailey makes the children do book reports and understand their history in the film. And that was something that my mother, you know, always told us. You know, she's like, I don't trust these institutions to teach you about you.
RASCOE: The Freemans, they're in a very different type of life. I mean, I don't know if it's - would you call it post-apocalyptic or - like, what is the setting now?
THORNE: I mean, it's starting to feel like post-apocalyptic present.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Oh, no.
THORNE: (Laughter).
RASCOE: I hope it don't get there. We don't want to get there.
THORNE: (Laughter) So do I. So do I. So do I. So for me, it was that I wanted this family - one that is a Black and blended with Indigenous roots, as well - that they're in the future. And while the story is informed by the history and the resilience of Black and Indigenous communities in the face of colonialism, this family - this resilient family - is the family that is - you know, they're the ones getting the calls for people for help. You know what I mean? They're the ones that know how to survive in this future.
RASCOE: Because in this future, all the animals have died?
THORNE: Correct.
RASCOE: All the animals have died. Basically, civilization, in many ways, has collapsed.
THORNE: Yes.
RASCOE: The animals have died. And so being able to grow things on your own, that's a big deal. And people live in these kind of homesteads, I guess you could almost call them. And that's what this is. That's where we find this family in the beginning, right?
THORNE: The famine has caused sort of a food chain collapse across the world, and the amount of people that actually know how to work land is very few. So farm land now becomes the most important commodity. And if you have farm land, you know how to work it, you have the biggest target on your back.
RASCOE: There's also that question of isolation versus community, and isolation and also hoarding for yourself. You're at the end of the world, pretty much, and isolation and keeping stuff for your family protects them. You can't take care of everybody, and community can be dangerous, but it can also be a help. Like, what are the trade-offs that you were exploring here?
THORNE: If you want a family to continue, there's going to be a point where community is important. And, like, you can sustain to a certain point, but, you know, you're going to need help. Everybody needs help in some way, shape or form. The Freemans trade. They've worked out a system where they don't have to really be in contact with anybody, and they can just leave stuff and pick stuff up. But everybody needs help at some point in time. So it is the idea of we have to engage in community in some way, shape or form, and you have to navigate that.
RASCOE: You do have cannibals (laughter).
THORNE: Yep.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Cannibals. In this...
THORNE: Yep.
RASCOE: ...Post-apocalyptic world, you don't have animals to eat, but I guess we're all animals. There are these desperate people who are attempting to invade the farm, to pillage and even eat farmers, which, you know, I wonder how efficient that is (laughter).
THORNE: Well, let's put it this way, right? Let's put it this way. If you don't know how to work the land, then you're going to have to eat something. And so that's the difference, you know?
RASCOE: Right.
THORNE: Those particular - that group of people that's out there coming for people, they're not farmers. They don't know how to work the land. But our Freeman family, they're the ones that understand how to work the land and produce.
RASCOE: That's a good point.
THORNE: Yeah.
RASCOE: You got to eat something. It's hard not to watch this film and think about, like, what does it mean to be human when you have to fight for physical survival every day. Like, who do you help? Who do you cut off? What are you hoping that viewers take away from your film?
THORNE: I think it's important that we do think about these questions as we move through this world. It's become incredibly politicized and there's an inherent fear of many others. There's a lot of fear about what people are thinking and how they are and what they represent. And there's not a lot of conversation. You know, the community is the family. They're in conflict with each other, but if they're going to continue together, they have to communicate. They have to have a conversation about that, and they have to grow together. I wanted to make a film that was a fun ride - thrilling and can scare you. But I also wanted to make a film that would give you something to think about when you walk out of the theater, and one that has heart and hope, I feel.
RASCOE: That's writer and director R.T. Thorne. His movie "40 Acres" is out in theaters this week. Thank you so much for speaking with us today.
THORNE: I appreciate you, Ayesha. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
