Set in 1973, unfolds atmospherically on an unpopulated island off the Cornish coast. There, a single volunteer ( Mary Woodvine) recording data on an unfamiliar flower finds her lonely daily observations turning troublingly towards the strange and metaphysical, forcing her to question what is real and what is nightmare. Is the barren landscape not just alive… but also sentient?

Jenkin and Monk build their crew from regular collaborators who live and work in Cornwall, and this team also comprised a number of students, graduates and staff from Falmouth University, working as core parts of the film crew during the shoot in West Cornwall in the spring of 2021 and later post-production, the film having been mixed by School of Film & Television lecturer Rich Butler in Falmouth’s own dubbing theatre.a b Kiang, Jessica (27 May 2022). " 'Enys Men' Review: A Gorgeously Grainy Folk Horror Steeped in Style but Starved of Story". Variety. Scovell, Adam (12 January 2023). "Enys Men: The films that frighten us in unexplainable ways". BBC Culture . Retrieved 15 January 2023. Enys Men is written and directed by Mark Jenkin. It stars Mary Woodvine, Edward Rowe, Flo Crowe and John Woodvine.

Most edit decisions were made on the shoot. “It has to be then because that’s when everyone’ s creative energy is focused – during the shoot,” says Jenkin on The Film Makers Podcast. On the odd occasion when they hadn’t captured footage to plan, he was forced to go into improvisation mode in post-production. FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Fully illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the film by William Fowler and Jason Wood among others UK / 2022 / colour / 90 mins / English language with optional subtitles for the Deaf and partial hearing, plus optional audio description / original aspect ratio 1.45:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo audio / DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 5.1 audio and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio Enys Men is the much anticipated follow-up to Bait, Jenkin’s breakthrough success which earned him a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer in 2020.Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world. Acclaimed independent Cornish horror feature Enys Men, from film-maker Mark Jenkin, was released earlier this month by the BFI. The low budget film was made using Jenkin’s unique workflow and is a masterclass in how to incorporate university learning into hands-on film-making. Mary Woodvine mesmerises in Mark Jenkin’s superbly haunting Cornish gem.” – Mark Kermode, Kermode & Mayo’s Take

A wildlife volunteer’s (Mary Woodvine) daily observations of a rare flower take a dark turn into the strange and metaphysical, forcing both her and viewers to question what is real and what is nightmare. Is the landscape not only alive but sentient? Kermode, Mark (15 January 2023). "Enys Men review – Mark Jenkin's Cornish psychodrama will sweep you away". The Guardian . Retrieved 15 January 2023. Will it scare you? I doubt it. If this is a folk horror then it’s an experimental, existential and enigmatic folk horror. It will likely unsettle you along the way though. The 1970s saw a wealth of films deal with the decidedly strange atmospheres of English landscapes in a similar fashion – films such as David Gladwell's Requiem for a Village (1976), Peter Hall's Akenfield (1974), both set in Suffolk, and Philip Trevelyan's Sussex-centred documentary The Moon and the Sledgehammer (1971). All of these mix documentary aesthetics and a desire to capture life in the countryside with stranger elements, whether it be people rising from their graves, as in Gladwell's film, or overlapping time periods, as in Hall's.

On her way home she passes a single Neolithic standing stone that’s around 10-foot high. It sometimes resembles a hooded woman when seen from a distance. The ivy covered dilapidated house where this woman is living is nearby. She will never be named and is credited only as ‘The Volunteer’ and she’s played by Mary Woodvine, the partner of writer/director Mark Jenkin (who also composed and performed a very atmospheric, Eno-esque ambient score using an analogue synthesizer and a tape loop). This woman’s steady state of hermit-like seclusion is disrupted when she sees lichen emerging from a flower and finds lichen growing on her own skin. She has visions, perhaps of dead miners or lifeboatmen, and also of an elderly priest, singing the hymn Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy, with its request to send a light to save “some poor fainting, struggling seaman”. He is played by Woodvine’s father, the distinguished Shakespearean actor John Woodvine.