Seeds is a 2024 Canadian comedy thriller directed by Kaniehtiio Horn, who also stars as the protagonist, Ziggy. Seeds is a genre-bending feature film that meanders into thriller, folk horror, and comedy and also carries a social statement of resistance. It highlights the classic conflict between the preservation of indigenous traditions and the undertow of emerging modernity that can act as a threat against ancient cultural practices.
Spoilers Ahead
What Is The Film About?
The film follows Ziggy, a young Mohawk influencer living her city dreams with her cat Potato, and had recently bagged a deal with Nature’s Oath Seeds Corporation—a corporate house that has radicalized traditional practices by genetically modifying the seeds. Ziggy, who was an influencer posting daily life reels, makeup videos, and pet reels with her cat, Potato, signs a deal with the organization. She has to make a minimum of three posts a week for a hefty amount of money that the company is willing to pay her. As she closes the deal, she receives a call from her cousin, Wiz, from the ‘homeland,’ who asks her to come over for a few days to house-sit their Aunty Mama’s house since he will be going on a fishing trip. Reluctant to go at first due to the patchy internet connection that may harm her work, Ziggy finally gives in and agrees to go back to her old land.
As Ziggy arrives in town, we see a man in black with Ziggy’s childhood friend, Nookie, asking about Ziggy’s whereabouts. Shortly after, Ziggy is picked up by her cousin, Wiz, who is shocked when he gets to know that Ziggy is working with Nature’s Oath Seeds Corporation. Wiz explains that Nature’s Oath is actually the enemy of their people, as they are genetically modifying seeds in such a way that newer seeds cannot be harvested from the crops—making it a mandate to buy seeds from the corporation every year. Besides, the ancient lineage of heirloom crops is under threat with Nature’s Oath modifying their genes. Ziggy is torn between the promise of a future of financial security and her own conscience pushing her to preserve the age-old traditions of the soil. As Ziggy explores her old roots, her dilemma with seeds, and her old relationship with Bandit, an intruder is on the horizon to steal Aunty Mama’s reserve of heirloom seeds, forcing Ziggy into a battle to protect her family’s legacy and her community’s heritage.
Dope vs. Nope: Is Nature’s Oath Truly the Enemy?
Ziggy starts the work with Nature’s Oath primarily because there is something deep down inside her that clings to the legacy of her ancestral food-providing responsibilities. In the beginning of the film, Ziggy mentions that her indigenous name means “nice turnip”—highlighting how intrinsic human and crop relationships are to indigenous communities. Later, Wiz mentions that Ziggy comes from a long line of farmers, and we also see visuals of the field in twilight frequenting her dreams. She is a daughter of the soil—and as a modern revival of being a food provider, she delivers food on a bicycle. It would be safe to say that her excitement about joining Nature’s Oath was about her desire to embrace the traditional practices in a modern way. However, although Ziggy’s heart was in the right place, Nature’s Oath’s motives were not as black and white.
Wiz is the first one to tell Ziggy about what Nature’s Oath does—let’s break down what it means for the farmers and how it can threaten age-old farming practices. For generations of farmers, women were the seed keepers—or the seed bank of the community. Being a seedkeeper means harvesting the seeds from the crop and preserving them, as Aunty Mama does in her cellar, with distinguished heirloom qualities. This means a wider variety in crops in terms of their taste, shape, size, and nutrients, and their rightful preservation by centuries of women. The women have been the sowing spirits before the benefits of the produce are reaped by the farmers. Following the same tradition, Aunty Mama has a cellar full of precious seeds—corn and squash—which she is extremely protective of. In fact, when she calls Ziggy, she tells her to keep the cellar locked. Ziggy, in her pursuit of making the new gig successful, is reluctant about the cellar’s safety and has to bear the consequences of her reluctance.
We see that Ziggy is very dedicated to making a mark with Nature’s Oath. As she visits her old acquaintances, she clicks selfies with them because she needs content. What Nature’s Oath wants is a packaged revival of the old traditions for social media, in a trad-wife farming way, so that it is palatable to the viewers. However, the surface-level interest in farming and gardening is just an eyewash to hide their sinister advances to end the legacy of heirloom crops and the continuation of crop cycles. Nature’s Oath wants to create a monopoly where they become a corporate seed bank, depriving farmers of the agency to sow their own seeds.
Ziggy is out of range of updates since her reservation has patchy internet, but when she goes to the deer stand sweet spot, her account starts flooding in with followers and notifications. At first, she is overwhelmed with the encouraging comments, “Dope,” one comment reads, but the comment right after is a big “Nope”—people start chiming in about how Nature’s Oath is the people’s enemy, just as Wiz told her when she arrived.
What is Drake’s motive?
Drake is the guy we meet with Nookie, who is keeping a covert eye on Ziggy’s coming and going. He asks Nookie for information about Ziggy and stalks her to her cabin. There is an eerie visual of Drake in the house as Ziggy takes a shower. The film, a breezy comedy until now, becomes a home invasion horror. Drake offers Nookie a hundred grand in exchange for the seeds in the cellar, and Nookie agrees to aid him in his mission. Drake enters the house the next morning, in the absence of Ziggy, when she packs her bag and goes to the deer stand to get some work done. Potato, Ziggy’s cat, is at home, and he attacks Drake, tearing off his ear. Enraged, Drake smashed Potato’s head in, killing her.
As the film progresses, we understand, as Ziggy and her lover Bandit discover, that Drake is actually an agent sent by the Nature’s Oath Seeds Corporation to steal the seeds from the cellar. The company knows about Ziggy’s indigenous roots, and hiring Ziggy to lead her back to her reservation was a decoy so that they can get their hands on the seeds. These are no ordinary seeds; these are organic corn seeds that restore the oxygen in the soil and squash seeds that grow into large trees that shade the ground. Drake and Nookie want to acquire the seeds, but they do not know where they are kept. When Bandit steps out, the evil duo captures Ziggy and ties her to a chair.
How Does Ziggy Defeat Evil?
The film shifts to Ziggy’s dreamspace quite a few times, and a character called Graham Greene appears on the television, who acts like a spiritual guide in many situations. The first time Graham Greene appears, Ziggy finds a severed ear on the couch in her dream, which foreshadows Drake’s severed ear by Potato. On some other occasions, we see Graham Greene—probably an extension of Ziggy’s conscience—popping up in the dreamspace asking her to look out the window. As she looks out, she sees her child—one she had lost due to her miscarriage, as she reveals to Bandit later. Ziggy and her daughter stand in the same golden ancestral field, sowing seeds and reaping the crops. In reality, Ziggy does not have a child. Her child, her friend, and her roommate is her cat, Potato. When Drake brutally murders Potato, her kin, Ziggy, vows to avenge the death of her cat.
Ziggy is a member of the Kanienkeheka tribe—a tribe known for their cannibalistic punishment method. In the beginning of the film, Ziggy narrates in a reel that her clan did not just gor around eating humans but only ate the hearts of the enemies, people who wronged the tribe gravely. Ziggy’s resistance to Drake becomes an act of protecting the ancient values of the tribe as it faces the threat of modern evils. When Drake loosens the rope around her feet, Ziggy breaks free and overpowers the two men with her inherent bravado. In the last act, we see the men bound by the rope as Ziggy punishes them in the traditional way—by painting their faces with soot, flaying their skin, and finally preparing to take the heart out of the body. Although Ziggy spares Nookie at the last minute, we see her take the heart out of Drake’s body and chomp on it—a brutal image of justice through a righteous body horror lens.
In Seeds’ ending, Ziggy not only protects the seeds but her community too. Her visceral act of justice is not merely revenge—it is reclamation. Her defiance, her grief, and her eventual violence become acts of love: for her cat, her kin, and her land. It would be safe to assume that she would concentrate on upholding her traditional legacy rather than working with Nature’s Oath Seeds Corporation again.
