BAFTA Winner Mark Jenkin’s 1970’s Horror Enys Men starts filming in Cornwall, backed by Film4

24 March 2021

BAFTA winning writer-director Mark Jenkin’s next feature, Enys Men, an ‘ecosophical horror’, has commenced filming within the Cornish landscape. Produced by Denzil Monk for his Cornwall-based production company BOSENA, Enys Men is the follow-up to Bait (2019), the highly-acclaimed, award-winning drama focussing on the issues surrounding the gentrification of a small Cornish fishing village.  

Set in 1973, Enys Men, pronounced ‘Enys Mane’ meaning ‘stone island’ in the Cornish language, deals with a woman, played by Mary Woodvine, who starred in Bait and whose credits include Judge John Deed, Our Friends in the North, and Eastenders.  Woodvine’s character is alone on a remote Cornish island from winter into spring as a Volunteer for The Wildlife Trust, observing an extremely rare flower that only grows in this one place, on land contaminated by an old Cornish tin mine.  Flickers of past events weave through the Volunteer’s ritualised existence. On the brow of the hill, in the middle of the island, stands a Bronze Age standing stone, which may or may not be moving closer to her cottage.

The film also sees a return of fellow Bait star Ed Rowe, introduces young actor Flo Crowe and features Mary’s father, John Woodvine.

Mark Jenkin says, ”In Enys Men we explore the horror of human intervention in the natural world and how very little things can knock everything out of balance.”

Co-financed by Film4 and supported by Falmouth University's Sound/Image Cinema Lab, the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site and Johnny Fewings Media Consultancy, Enys Men builds upon BOSENA’s clear commitment to making creatively and critically successful films which follow 'stepping lightly’ regenerative principles of production.
 
Producer Denzil Monk says “We were meant to start shooting Enys Men almost a year ago and we are fortunate to be able to begin working again.  The COVID delay has given us all time to breathe, and time for the Earth to do likewise, and as we move towards an uncertain but hopeful future there couldn’t be a better time for us to be shooting this ecosophical horror, within the evocative Cornish landscape in a thoughtful and safe way.”

Those who are interested can follow Mark Jenkin’s series of lockdown diaries on BBC’s Radio4 The Film Programme and follow the story of the production as it unfolds on social media via #EnysMen and on @Bosenafylm