40 Acres, from director and writer RT Thorne, begins by explaining a world of extinction and war, which explains the movements of the Freemans, an Afro-Indigenous collective in Ontario. Sometimes they shoot bandits, at others they go about a happy-ish routine involving perimeter checks. Whoever does these checks report to the rest of the group. Galen (Michael Greyeyes) does one of those perimeter checks that night. And part of their routine involve Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler) about how dangerous outsiders are. She’s not going to make the same mistake twice in almost losing her son Emmanuel (Jacob Gabriel). But now that Emmanuel is a teenager (Kataem O’Connor), they can only do so much to ward off cannibals.

Genre films are about outside threats, ones that feel supernatural, but in a stereotypical way, they’re about inside threats as well. One of the biggest conflicts here is the one between Hailey and Emmanuel, the latter becoming more rebellious as days go by. The camera lingers on teen Emmanuel in a way that signals, albeit obviously, his boredom at the farm collective. I write ‘collective’ because the relationship among the characters feel more work like instead of familial. Sure, Galen and Hailey, who don’t share the same surname, do things out of love, but they still command. Even Galen and Hailey relationship in 40 Acres feels fascinatingly suspect, acting as bosses, not parents.

Sure, 40 Acres is fascinating but it has the same problems as most films regardless of origin. The cinematography is too dark, which feels criminal knowing that this has Black people as protagonists. It’s equally baffling to have this kind of cinematography knowing that the crew are also Black. And surprisingly enough, I wish that it hit more of the genre beats as one expects. Both the inter titles and the opening remind viewers of the dangers this collective / family faces. There’s also a flashback scene an hour in that reinforces how violent this fictional future is. But I am merely a simple man who wants cannibals to appear in a cannibal film.

But I keep coming back to 40 Acres and how it depicts its characters’ bizarre relationships. Like why, for instance, is Galen speaking occasionally in Cree but no one speaks it back? These dynamics, though, are the film’s saving grace, like I’m hearing a new and exciting language. The militaristic language is fascinating because the actors infuse that language with love otherwise unexpressed. The bullet choreography and the fight choreography is great when the film allows us to see things happen. Of course, the performances are great, as Deadwyler carries a film about someone with generational pain. She’s underrated, which is a quality that Greyeyes also possesses, an actor who deserves more praise.

40 Acres is available to watch in select Canadian theatres.