“CAN YOU PUT IN YOUR article that it’s really important everybody sees it at least four times?” jokes Mark Jenkin. “Commercially speaking, that would be ideal.” Happy to oblige, as there may be something in that.
We catch up with the Cornish director during a spare hour at BFI Southbank, before he reviews a print of Enys Men, his follow-up to the critically acclaimed Bait. Jenkin’s 2019 drama about a struggling fisherman earned him a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut. Enys Men (for those wondering: Enys rhymes with tennis and is Cornish for island, while Men sounds like main and translates as stone) sees him moving into eerie, fantastical territory.
This is not a straightforward chiller, though, but something more elusive and allusive. If the film chimes with you then you’ll probably want to watch it again, in the hope that your understanding of it further coalesces. However, as the director himself admits, “Some people will walk away really regretting seeing it.
“If I want to really torture myself, I can go on and read comments on Letterboxd,” he tells SFX. “What’s interesting is, when I look at Bait, it’s all four stars, mostly. With Enys Men, it’s one star or five stars – these real extremes of opinion. Which is great!”
TROUBLE WITH LICHEN
Set in 1973, the film centres on an unnamed volunteer (Mary Woodvine) living in a cottage on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast. Her daily task is to observe a rare flower growing on a clifftop, logging her observations.
