FREELAND IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Krishna Fairchild as Devi in Freeland

The cannabis industry has grown over the years where many states and the country of Canada has legalized it’s use.  This has made many users happy they no longer have to hide their stash.  On the flipside some growers have been left out to dry because the black market is diminishing,  Directors Mario Furloni and Kate Mclean take a stab at this narrative on those who have not done well in the legalization of marijuana in their film Freeland.  Recently screened at the Calgary International Film Festival, Freeland is hard and horrifying look at what governments can do and how they squeeze themselves into gold mines like marijuana,   The word legalization is a cover for the capitalization and this process has weeded out those growers who have been at it for such a period of time.

Devi, played by Krishna Fairchild, plays that aging pot farmer who is set on her ways in terms of growing marijuana in her plantation located in the Humboldt County of Northern California.  Against a beautiful backdrop of the lush colourful forests and redwood trees, lays her cabin that was built back in Devi’s heyday when she was a hippie and proud to be living off the grid and when marijuana was illegal.  We see this at the beginning of the film when there are old videos of her and her entourage enjoying their hippie lifestyle.  Fast forward to about 3o year’s later, the legalization of marijuana has taken place and Devi is not prepared for the impact that this will have on her life,

One of her 20-something seasonal workers Josh, played by Frank Mosley, is aware of what is going outside of this bubble that he works at.  He makes a suggestion to Devi to team up with him to modernize her plantation and to take things to another level.  Even Josh himself wants to get out of his trailer trash life along with his other co-workers with Mara, played by Lily Gladstone and Casey, played by Cameron James Matthews.  As they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks and Devi is having none of that as she has been curating her own plants for decades.

Devi’s old romantic partner Ray, played by James Craven, has decided to take out his last strand and has no interest in modernizing his own plantation.  Ray does live in the vicinity and has decided to move on after doing the same thing with Devi for the same amount of time.  He spells the last of her tribe from those happy hippie days and so she is going to try to ride the train now all by herself even though this train has stopped many moons ago.

Things start to get worst as she receives a notice on her property that she is involved in an illegal action because she does not have a permit.  Her latest strand she claims is one of her best but that does not stop the bad news to spread to her clients and old friends who refuse to do business with her.  She also finds out that it would take a lot of money to get a permit to sell marijuana and that it would cost her all that she has.  So the money is not coming in which means she cannot pay her seasonal workers who are already in a bind as it is.  Seeing this legalization taking place is causing her much anxiety as she sees billboards of nearby dispensaries, plantations with state of the art technology to grow marijuana and cannabis expos where she is unable to compete.

Freeland is a rather dreary character study of a woman who has fallen ahead of the times and experiencing a steep dip that has no empathy.  Re-inventing her plantation would be like re-inventing herself which is perhaps too late in this stage of her life.   You begin to see Devi sinking into madness as her age has started to catch up with her.   You can see that she was never prepared for the next stage in her life and now she has become the laughing stock of her industry.  Krishna Fairchild’s performance as Devi is so powerful like Michael Douglas’s Falling Down.  Rather being victim of the rat race, Devi becomes victim of a taboo industry that grew and changed too quickly that she herself was unable to catch up.