TIFF Mini-Reviews - Seeds

Seeds is the directorial debut by Kaniehtiio Horn, better known as an actress with notable roles in shows like Reservation Dogs and Letterkenny. It’s a light-hearted thriller mostly set on an indigenous reservation in northern Ontario. It also stars Horn (who does triple-duty as the film’s writer as well) as Ziggy, a wannabe influencer who realizes she’s in bed with the wrong people when the evil Monsanto-like agricultural seed company sends a vicious agent to her reservation to try to steal her family’s traditional seeds. 

Kaniehtiio Horn is a triple threat for this film as writer/director/actress, shown here being a badass as she is for much of the film.

Despite the serious subject matter, and the often-gratuitous violence, Horn makes a concerted effort to never allow the film to get too heavy. At the TIFF world premiere, she noted that she wanted the movie to be “a fun ride” and she definitely succeeded in that goal. The film is peppered with legitimately hilarious moments that mostly center around the interactions  between the various characters. One example: Horn’s Ziggy trying to explain to the clerk in her remote reservation’s corner store what exactly an influencer is.

The movie is fairly straight-forward, and at times comes across as what it is – an actress’ tentative first steps into writing and filmmaking. But there’s enough good and encouraging stuff in there that we should all hope Horn continues to explore more directorial projects in the future. One final shoutout to Dallas Goldtooth, who has also had a role in Reservation Dogs, as well as a couple of episodes in the recent Fallout series. He absolutely stole every scene he was in, and has an amazing natural comedic presence and timing. I hope we see a lot more of him going forward.