SXSW 2025 Roundup: “Odyssey,” “Spies Among Us,” & “40 Acres”
Odyssey
Courtesy of SXSW
The Brits seem to have a way with anxiety-ridden media, and Odyssey is no different. If you thought Industry was a bleak example of how things can be for young people trying to eke out a living in the finance sector in England, Odyssey is the real estate equivalent. Where Odyssey differs is that the film starts as a coke-fueled drama about the cutthroat world of real estate, but twists itself into a bloody crime thriller.
To say that Natasha (Polly Maberly) is in over her head is an understatement. She’s drawing in all aspects of her daily life, but most of her troubles can be traced back to her failing real estate company. There’s talk of a large company buying her out and she doesn’t want to lose control, but the loss of control is exactly what the film chronicles. Natasha finds herself involved with loan sharks who promise to wipe away all her outstanding debt if she’ll hide a kidnapped real estate agent for them.
Odyssey is aptly named, in the sense that Natasha is constantly on the move across London. It’s an odyssey through the underbelly of the city. Like the famous Greek poem the film gets its name from, Odyssey is sprawling and thematically pays homage to the idea that the hero must undergo a series of trials. In Odyssey, Natasha isn’t much of a hero in the mythological sense, nor in the contemporary sense. She’s hurtling through life, hurting herself and others as she tries to reach a goal that feels unattainable. The final act of Odyssey is a gritty left turn into genre fare so unexpected, yet fitting for the film’s level of tension.
The Spies Among Us
Credit: Gabriel Silverman
When World War II ended, Germany was split into two countries. One, West Germany, was a capitalist democracy, and the other, East Germany, was a communist state. The new documentary, The Spies Among Us, shows the viewer what life was like on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall. More than a historical retelling of the rise and fall of this divided Germany, The Spies Among Us looks at a surveillance state whose methods may sound a little too close to our contemporary reality.
Peter Keup, a Stasi-victim-turned-historian, learns that his own brother was feeding information to the government about their family. What starts as a personal exploration of family history grows into a much larger investigation about what leads a person to become an informant. The film takes a turn when Keup sits down with Heinz Engelhardt, one of the last living high-ranking members of the Stasi.
The Spies Among Us is another example of a piece of history that has become all too relevant again. We’re living in a time when free speech is supposed to be protected, but those who are critical of the government are being censored.
40 Acres
Credit: Magnolia Pictures
After the end of the Civil War, freed slaves were promised 40 acres and a mule, but that would never come to be. It’s from this promise that writer/director R.T. Thorne created his film 40 Acres. Two hundred years after the first Civil War, another breaks out. This war isn’t over the right to own slaves, but rather rapidly depleting resources, like water and farmland. Hits a little too close to home, right?
40 Acres begins after the war has ended and farmland has become the world’s most valuable resource. Ex-soldier Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler) lives on a massive expanse of farmland with her partner (Michael Greyeyes) and their children. Together, they protect their land against raiders, but a new threat is beginning to emerge. Nearby farms are being picked off one by one by a cannibalistic hoard whose sights are now set on the Freemans. Their safety is further put in jeopardy when a teenage girl shows up out of the blue at their electric fence, begging for help.
While we’ve seen many survivalist stories, and certainly many dystopian survival stories, the nuance of 40 Acres is that this fight for land ownership stretches back two hundred years. It’s not a coincidence that Hailey and her partner, Galen, are from two minority heritages who had a long history of land being taken from them. Hailey is Black and Galen is Indigenous, and both groups have experienced displacement on a massive scale for generations. 40 Acres is merely a new take on a fight that was waging long before the film begins.
Deadwyler is one of the best actors working today, and anyone paying attention can see that, and in 40 Acres she offers another wholly captivating performance. Her role as a mother protecting her family and the land that belongs to her is elevated by the expertly paced tension. The action sequences are quick but impactful. In the world they live in, where their survival isn’t guaranteed, they must act decisively and without hesitation. It’s kill or be killed, and 40 Acres never lets the audience forget that.
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