Final Rating: 3/5
Starring, written, and directed by Canadian indigenous actor Kaniehtiio Horn, Seeds is a promising, if messy, debut.
Horn plays Ziggy, a Toronto-based influencer who makes her living posting about her indigenous heritage on Instagram. Ziggy comes from a long line of farmers, so when seed company Nature’s Oath offers her a substantial sponsorship, Ziggy enthusiastically accepts, much to the chagrin of her friends and family back home.
Nature’s Oath, it turns out, has a reputation for patenting seeds and running traditional farms out of business. In fact, there’s reason to believe Ziggy’s sponsorship itself is merely a ploy by the company to get at her aunt who lives off the grid and owns several rare seeds.
Through Nature’s Oath, Seeds takes on Monsanto and similar GMO companies, focusing on the potential harm such businesses can inflict on traditional farmers. Nature’s Oath’s encroachment on reserve agriculture draws direct parallels between corporate practices and colonialism.
Where Seeds falters a bit is in how Horn decides to tackle that central conflict. Seeds is part drama, part revenge action thriller, and all a bit too convenient. Nature’s Oath, quickly revealed as unforgivably evil, sends a mercenary to break into Ziggy’s house. With a shadowy figure (played by a particularly mean Patrick Garrow) now stalking her and assaulting her friends, the colonialism of Nature’s Oath is reduced from an abstract idea to a tangible, defeatable enemy. While it’s cathartic for Ziggy to fight an embodiment of corporate greed, it risks obscuring the larger point behind run-of-the-mill fight sequences.
If those fight sequences were great, that might not be so bad, but Seeds weakest moments are its action. Seeds is dark. As in the action often cannot be seen due to low lighting. The action choreography is decent, but it’s not special enough to overcome the difficulty of making out what’s happening. Even the more dramatic scenes could look better, but when characters are talking, they at least tend to do so in a well-lit room.
As for what those characters are saying, the performances are entertaining. Horn’s Ziggy is believable as an influencer, and the supporting cast – including Dallas Goldtooth as Ziggy’s cousin, and Meegwun Fairbrother as Ziggy’s love interest Bandit – are fun and add depth to Ziggy’s backstory.
Horn incorporates text messages and Instagram to enhance the storytelling, seamlessly added by editor Lindsay Allikas. Graham Greene delights in a small but important role as the host of true-crime documentary series Exhibit A (a real show which Greene hosted from 1997-2001). After watching the show every night before bed, Ziggy begins hallucinating about Greene talking to her.
There’s a lot to like in Seeds. The performances are charming, and Horn is an inventive storyteller. That said, a rough script and a lack of polish when it comes to action keep Seeds from excelling.
Seeds was seen during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Thank you to Route504 for the advance screening.
