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Synopsis: Eastern Western is the story of a son raised by two fathers, one from the European East and one from the American West, set on the cusp of the 20th century. Deep in the mountains of the American Frontier, Igor, an immigrant and recent widower, struggles to raise his two-year-old son Ivo in the harshness of winter. When Duncan, an American horse rancher and friendly acquaintance, decides to move his horse-breeding business and family to California, Igor and Ivo join the wagon train headed West. After a series of encounters with both friend and foe, Duncan is left with a decision that will affect the family’s future forever.

The film is now available on Amazon

1.) Even though the main character is a man, the story is truly driven by a woman. Why was it important for you to make a female figure the heart of Eastern Western?

Marina: In our experience of our family’s immigration, which started in Bulgaria, a lot of the momentum came from our mother. Women have a good sense of the future, and they fight for the future they want – it’s in the female nature. In times of unrest, women are major catalysts of change, movement, migration. We decided that Igor’s wife would be his anchor and guiding force, and the bridge between East and West. His wife offers him a strong connection to his homeland, where their journey began, as well as to the future she wanted in America. Although she is physically absent from the story, her presence is always felt.

Biliana: We conceived Eastern Western as a father and son story because we were very much inspired by our longtime friend Igor Galijasevic and his real-life son, Leonardo. Igor’s path also led him from Eastern Europe to America, and as we were thinking about our first narrative film, what we wanted to say, who we wanted to cast, we very organically decided to approach him to be a part of this journey. We do hope, however, that when audiences watch Eastern Western, they might also question the idea of “main character.” This film, in our eyes, is truly delivered by an ensemble cast. It’s hard to say who the story belongs to, because it’s ultimately a story of interconnectedness.

2.) What advice would you give to emerging creators who want to tell personal or unconventional stories but aren’t sure where to start?

Marina: I would say follow the kernel of what excites you but challenge yourself with at least one major logistical aspect of your story, and let that help your story develop unconventionally, so to speak. For example, we chose to shoot almost entirely in the outdoors of Montana. It was the backdrop to our story, but also a major advantage to our narrative, as the characters move through these landscapes and the story develops. So what I mean is, assess your advantages and perhaps something less obvious will offer so much creative potential and exploration in the narrative. This way of working stems from our documentary background.

Biliana: To Marina’s point, work on maximizing your production value by curating everything on screen in a pragmatic way and stay flexible. You can’t point the camera in the wrong direction if you’re standing amidst the Montana wilderness. The vistas alone contribute to stunning imagery. We knew we wanted to make this film a period piece, but didn’t necessarily think of it as a Western at first. However, the choice came naturally. Imagine filming a period piece in the big city? Your budget skyrockets. Everything around you has to look the part: cars, buildings, extras wardrobe, etc. Whereas if you are in the middle of the prairie, a cabin and the wardrobe will get the job done.

3.) What did working together as a sister duo teach you about each other and your creative process?

Biliana: We have been working together as creative collaborators ever since I can remember, and we eventually made it official by starting our production company El Jinete Films in 2015. I think that over the years, we have learned a lot from each other. We have always worked as a team, and inevitably have become (I believe) better team players because of that dynamic. Filmmaking is a team sport. There is no room for egos, there is no room for “I,” and in our case it has just always been “we.”

Marina: We work to translate this sentiment on our sets. Creativity is all about communication, collaboration, and being a good listener. You have to trust each other and always know that two heads are better than one.

4.) How did your own experiences as immigrants shape the story, themes, or characters in Eastern Western?

Biliana: We always knew that our first narrative film had to be a “coming to America” story. We left Bulgaria at a very young age and primarily lived as outsiders in the many places we settled in. In the year 2000, we made the move to the United States, and ever since then, we have been discovering that America can either be a welcoming place, or a very harsh place, depending on many factors. Typically, the process of adjusting to a new land is easier for the children than it is for the parents, and this is one of the main themes we wanted to explore in Eastern Western. We also examine the connection to home, a home you might never see again, or a home you might never get to know in the first place. It was important for us to tell a generational story during a time when communication with the homeland was extremely difficult. We also chose the Western format because it’s essentially a genre as old as the medium of cinema, and it has clearly been lacking diverse perspectives. I recently came across a “Top 50 Westerns” of all time – 2 of them were directed by women, and needless to say the majority are not about women or any foreigners. We didn’t necessarily set out to buck any trends, but I am happy that the final result seems to be doing just that.

Marina: Being an immigrant is inherent to our identity as people, and therefore our identity and perspective as storytellers. This led us to tell a global story via a local perspective – of this immigrant father, and his son, and their journey in the American West. For me, immigration is the most telling experience of our global world – it is so specific to each person, but so universal. Therefore, everyone, in some capacity, has experienced or been witness to it. The history and development of the western frontier of America held so many immigrant stories that are not widely depicted in film, and so we decided to tell this story in the vastness of the American West. It does also serve as a representation of immigration at any point in history, because the struggles, relationships, emotions, and journeys of immigration are recurrent.

“Being an immigrant is inherent to our identity as people, and therefore our identity and perspective as storytellers.“

5.) What drew you to this story, and what do you hope audiences take away from it?

Marina: What drew us to this story was the ability to explore foundational relationships, between people, between people and animals, and between people and nature, during a pivotal span of time in the history of America. Through a very specific lens, we explore reasons and consequences of migration from many different angles, that of an Eastern European, an American family, a Native American, and even the forced migration of thousands of horses during wartime. We hope audiences can appreciate the levels of sacrifice that exist within the dynamics of these relationships.

Biliana: I hope there is something within this story for everyone to discover and connect with. As Marina says, this film is about characters from many different walks of life. I hope we were able to showcase that individual empathy can go a long way, and if we have the ability to help our fellow neighbor, human or animal, we should do so.

“I hope we were able to showcase that individual empathy can go a long way, and if we have the ability to help our fellow neighbor, human or animal, we should do so.“

Q&A WITH MILCANIA DIAZ-ROJAS X 40 ACRES

August 12, 2025

WIF spoke with actress Milcania Diaz-Rojas about her role as “Dawn” in the feature film 40 Acres. This sci-fi thriller tells the story of a Black family of Canadian farmers descended from American Civil War migrants as they defend their homestead in a post-apocalyptic world.

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You play Dawn, a wanderer who enters the isolated Freeman family’s world. How did you approach developing her identity and motivations within this post-apocalyptic setting?

During the audition process I was already forming a sense of who Dawn was—her energy, grit and drive. After getting a chance to read the full script and of course falling in love with the story and world I started to see how Dawn fit into the bigger picture, which gave me the clarity I needed to approach her in a way that I thought would best serve the narrative and for me that meant truly understanding her motivation behind her choices.

Dawn is all about her family and community, and in this post-apocalyptic world, especially as a nurse, her survival instincts, her guardedness, but also the motherly instinct that she takes on is the driving force behind her choices—all of that was rooted in my experiences, during and after COVID-19, when spending time with family was a privilege and survival mode had peaked, but also from what I know about being a mother, it is a superhuman instinct to protect your kids.

As you follow the story of the family- in walks this intruder and my job as Dawn is simply surviving, giving her the reasons to make the decisions she has made, to have that internal conflict with this new connection she has made with Mannie and also that survival and maternal instinct of protecting her own without revealing anything prematurely.

No one sees themselves as a villain in life, and I made sure Dawn had strong motivations behind everything she did. Director R.T. Thorne said it best, “no one is really in the wrong,” however what everyone is driven by is a completely different thing, some survival and protecting their land and immediate family, others by each other in community. Asking myself these questions about Dawn helped create the most genuine relationships within the characters world.

40 Acres draws parallels between survival in a dystopian world and preserving cultural legacies. As a Latina, how do you connect with Dawn’s sense of survival and belonging?

As a first generation Canadian who grew up in a Spanish speaking household, eating traditional Dominican dishes like Sancocho, Arroz con habichuelas y pollo guisado (rice with beans and stewed chicken), and mangú con plátano frito (mashed plantain and fried salami), I am a mixture of African, Spaniard, indigenous roots in a perfect harmony. I think it has been such a blessing to be able to say these things have been carried down and my full intention is to carry it on with my daughter.

It wasn’t until a several years ago, I was working as a stand-in on a show and had a conversation with Eva Longoria who asked, ”Why did your family end up coming to Canada of all places?” And when all I could say was “I don’t know.” Her response was “You should find out—it’s important” stuck with me. I began to wonder for myself, why Canada? When I asked my grandfather, I found out that back in Dominican-Republic he worked as an accountant at a firm, that was unfortunately run by some corrupt people. My grandfather as an honest and God-fearing man was not willing to do what he was being asked- the same people ended up on one occasion kidnapping him with some of his children and threatening him (thankfully, no one was hurt). So, he came here as a refugee in 1989 fleeing for his and his family’s safety. My mom then came in 1991 and my dad followed in 1992.

Moving your whole family to an unknown land, where a different language is spoken, having to start from ground zero and yet still preserving cultural legacies. This is the same story as the Freeman family, a family that immigrated to Canada and worked their butts off to have this legacy and farmland to pass down, and in this blended family an indigenous father who may not have immigrated, but continues to preserve family legacies and indigenous roots through, language, traditions, food- passing it down through their children.

I am continuing the same way it was passed onto me, preserving languages, recipes, music, stories—so my daughter can understand her roots and have the same pride and gratitude for all she has, understanding that it’s a privilege to have what we now have. 

The Freemans are descendants of African American farmers who escaped to Canada. How did understanding this history help you shape Dawn’s interactions with the family?

My approach to Dawn wasn’t based on them being African American and Indigenous farmers, but it did give me a greater respect and understanding of the story being told. My character does not come into the picture until after the family dynamic is already established, so most of my interactions begin and exist between Mannie who is played by Kataem O’Connor and myself. 

Of course, my character eventually has an explosive first interaction with Haley Freeman and Galen (played by powerhouses Danielle Deadwyler and Michael Greyeyes). In that scene there is a clear depiction of the power dynamic between my character and theirs, the strength they hold as they tower over me at gunpoint clearly reveals a world where they’ve had to fight for survival, and that’s true of what both of our communities have had to overcome, and I think the film does a great job of hinting at that.

In a genre space historically dominated by white male perspectives, what does it mean for you as a Latina woman to be part of a primarily Black-led post-apocalyptic thriller?

As an Afro-Latina woman it’s an honor to be part of a film with such a rich story and to get the opportunity to bring Dawn to life, and its a breath of fresh air to be part of a project spotlighting a mixed race family of Black and indigenous roots. These two cultures that have already suffered an apocalypse and that have had to fight to preserve their cultures and traditions. Being from Dominican-Republic, a country where our indigenous peoples ‘The Taino People’ —who inhabited Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (also known as Dominican-Republic and Haiti), and Puerto Rico, were almost completely brought to extinction thanks primarily to Christopher Columbus and Spanish colonialism. The island led by Christopher Columbus became the first place where a large scale of enslaved Africans were sent to replace the Taino peoples who had been damn-near obliterated. 

My history as a Latina woman is deeply rooted in the same traumas that African-American and indigenous communities from North America have had to endure, being able to play a part in telling this story of 40 Acres that sheds light on these themes while still delivering everything you want in an action packed post-apocalyptic thriller.

I am proud to be part of this as a Black woman, and as a Latina woman im incredibly proud to represent, because there is still work that needs to be done in having afro-Latino representation on screen. Growing up watching Hispanic telenovelas—there was rarely ever the representation I would have wanted to see, the people and women who looked like me and who spoke the same language I spoke at home. As a woman of color who is also Latina it is incredibly important for me to represent not only my black roots, but my Latin roots and show all the little girls who look like me how possible it is, the same way seeing Zoe Saldaña on Colombiana and seeing another Dominican Afro-Latina woman leading a kick-ass film inspired me.

What challenges—on-set or in the industry—have you faced as a Latina actor, and how have you worked to overcome them?

Getting your foot in is always the hardest part, like anything else. Getting that opportunity to showcase what you can do as an artist, but all you can continue to do is continue to do the work necessary, honing in on your craft as an artist and creating other avenues to be prepared for when opportunity comes- or break down doors and create them yourself. Being cast in “Latina” roles themselves has been a challenge, like I mentioned earlier, there is still a lack of Afro-Latino representation on screen, so creating the opportunities for myself, to show what I can do has been my avenue. Making short films where my character is Spanish speaking, or bilingual, sprinkling it in any chance I get and collaborating with other Latino creatives in the city to forge my own path.

Finally, what does success look like for you, not just personally, but for the kinds of stories you want to champion in the industry?

For me, success is about being part of stories that matter. I want to champion work that moves people, stories rooted in truth, faith, culture, and the beauty of who we are—not just our traumas, but our resilience, joy, and depth. As an Afro-Latina woman, I want to see our stories told honestly and powerfully.

Personally, success means creating a life with balance—where I can be present for my daughter, lead with purpose, and no longer rely on side jobs to get by. I want to work consistently on projects that reflect my faith, my culture, and my heart—and leave behind a legacy she can be proud of. Ultimately, success is living in alignment with what I value, creating meaningful art, and inspiring my daughter—and others—to believe they can do the same.

Watch the trailer for 40 Acres, playing in theaters nationwide.

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