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Enys Men

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Enys Men
A Cornish-language film poster for Enys Men
UK theatrical release poster in Cornish, thought to be the first use of the language in a poster for a distributed feature film
Directed byMark Jenkin
Written byMark Jenkin
Produced byDenzil Monk
Starring
CinematographyMark Jenkin
Edited byMark Jenkin
Music byMark Jenkin
Production
companies
  • Film4
  • Sound/Image Cinema Lab
  • Bosena
Distributed byBritish Film Institute
Release dates
  • 20 May 2022 (2022-05-20) (Cannes)
  • 13 January 2023 (2023-01-13) (United Kingdom)
Running time
91 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$549,783[2]

Enys Men (Cornish for 'Stone Island') is a 2022 British experimental psychological folk horror film shot, composed, written and directed by Mark Jenkin. Shot on 16 mm film, it stars Mary Woodvine, Edward Rowe, Flo Crowe and John Woodvine.

The film was shot during the COVID-19 lockdown, and the crew prioritised creating a small carbon footprint during production. Enys Men premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

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Set in 1973 on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast, a wildlife volunteer's daily observations of a rare flower turn into a metaphysical journey that forces her as well as the viewer to question what is real and what is nightmare.[3]

The only feature that suggests a continuous flow of time (though highly sped up) is the appearance of a fruticose lichen growing on the flowers over three days and simultaneously on the protagonist's body.[4] She has a nebulous relationship with a sinister standing stone, a teenage girl who may be her daughter or younger self, a mysterious preacher who may be her father, a group of older women, and another group of young girls, a collection of ghostly miners who haunt the island's tunnels, and her sole human contact, a fisherman with whom she may have once been in love.

Cast

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  • Mary Woodvine as The Volunteer
  • Edward Rowe as The Boatman
  • Flo Crowe as The Girl
  • John Woodvine as The Preacher
  • Joe Gray as The Miner
  • Loveday Twomlow as The Baby
  • Callum Mitchell as Sound Engineer

Production

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The film was shot in 21 days during the COVID-19 lockdown, which necessitated a smaller crew than was planned. The crew set out for production to have a low carbon footprint, producing only 4.55 tonnes of CO2 (compared with around 3000 tonnes for a typical film) which was offset.[5]

Release

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Enys Men premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.[1][4][6][7][8] In Bodmin, the film's opening night sold out within hours, and the film was a box office success for cinemas across Cornwall.[5]

Neon has purchased the North American distribution rights.

Promotion

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The film was promoted bilingually, with posters being produced in both English and Cornish.[9][10] It was thought to be the first instance of a distributed feature film having Cornish posters.[9]

Critical reception

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 94 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "If its story's mysteries are ultimately less compelling than they might seem, Enys Men's retro aesthetic and intriguingly abstract visuals make this a chilly treat for horror fans."[3] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11]

Mark Kermode, reviewing for The Guardian, gave the film five stars calling it "a richly authentic portrait of Cornwall" and saying Woodvine's performance was "quietly mesmerising".[12] Adam Scovell, writing for BBC Culture, said that the film was "a perfect, anti-romantic expression of Cornish eeriness".[13]

In an article for Far Out, Calum Russell wrote that Enys Men feels "like the spiritual continuation of Bait", Jenkin's previous film, and "more like an innovative art installation than a piece of narrative fiction".[14]

Accolades

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Year Association Category Nominee Result Ref.
2022 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight Mark Jenkin Nominated [15]
Athens International Film Festival Best Picture Nominated [16]
BFI London Film Festival Best Film 66th place [17]
Sitges Film Festival Best Motion Picture Nominated [18]
2023 British Independent Film Awards Best Sound Won [19]
The Guardian's Best Films The Best Film (June) Won [20]
IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival Best Feature Film Nominated

Home media

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Enys Men was released on dual format Blu-ray and DVD on 8 May 2023 via BFI distribution.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b Kiang, Jessica (27 May 2022). "'Enys Men' Review: A Gorgeously Grainy Folk Horror Steeped in Style but Starved of Story". Variety.
  2. ^ "Enys Men". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Enys Men". Rotten Tomatoes.
  4. ^ a b Bradshaw, Peter (20 May 2022). "Enys Men review – a supremely disquieting study of solitude". The Guardian.
  5. ^ a b Morris, Steven (6 January 2023). "'Interest is off the scale': Cornish cinema fans snub Avatar for local folk horror". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  6. ^ Ritman, Alex (24 May 2022). "Cannes Hidden Gem: Unsettling Rocks and Cornish Creeps in Mark Jenkin's 'Enys Men'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  7. ^ Wise, Damon (20 May 2022). "Cannes Review: Mark Jenkin's 'Enys Men'". Deadline Hollywood.
  8. ^ Latif, Leila (20 May 2022). "'Enys Men' Review: An Artfully Constructed Folk Horror Film About Never-Ending Grief". IndieWire.
  9. ^ a b "Enys Men: Film poster a Cornish language breakthrough". BBC News. 6 December 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  10. ^ Trewhela, Lee (1 December 2022). "Enys Men: Cornwall director Mark 'Bait' Jenkin's new film gets early screenings in the South West". Cornwall Live. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  11. ^ "Enys Men Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  12. ^ Kermode, Mark (15 January 2023). "Enys Men review – Mark Jenkin's Cornish psychodrama will sweep you away". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  13. ^ Scovell, Adam (12 January 2023). "Enys Men: The films that frighten us in unexplainable ways". BBC Culture. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  14. ^ Russell, Calum (11 January 2023). "'Enys Men' Review: Mark Jenkin's meditative homegrown experience". Far Out. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  15. ^ Lemercier, Fabien (27 April 2022). "Scents of Europe and discoveries at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight". cineuropa.org. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  16. ^ "Archive : 28th AIFF 2022 : International Competition". en.aiff.gr. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  17. ^ "Enys Men, the new feature from visionary Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin, to be released by the BFI on 13 January 2023". bfi.co.uk. 20 September 2022. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  18. ^ "Sitges' Universe Expands With New Titles From the Most Contemporary, Audacious Fantastic Genre". sitgesfilmfestival.com. 28 July 2022. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  19. ^ Dalton, Ben (20 October 2023). "Bifa Raindance Maverick award longlist includes 'Enys Men', 'Name Me Lawand'". screendaily.com. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  20. ^ "The best films of 2023 so far". The Guardian. 8 June 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  21. ^ "Enys Men". hmv.com. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
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