Mark Jenkin's 'Enys Men': Past and Present Invade a Remote Island in the UK

A masterpiece. The latest feature film from Mark Jenkin. Because his previous work “Bait” was so well-received, it achieved the great success of having its North American distribution rights purchased by NEON, which is a delight for fans. On the sheer cliffs of an isolated island off the coast of Cornwall, a woman wearing a bright red jacket—vivid enough to be seen from a distance—is sitting. She inserts a thermometer she is holding next to a single white flower blooming on the cliff to measure the soil temperature. Then, this nameless woman, dubbed the "volunteer," stands up in silence, passes by a stone house, and drops a stone into an old well to listen to the sound of it falling. She returns home, turns on the generator, and writes "no abnormalities" and the soil temperature in her notebook. This is her daily routine. Day after day, she lives doing only this. It feels like faith, like paranoia; it starts to look like she is playing out "The Believers" alone, or "The Wicker Man" alone, or "The Lighthouse" alone. Ruins and isolated islands have their own history and stories, and subliminal images as "memories" of each intertwine complexly with the woman's story, forming a cross-temporal visual poem. Since this is almost a one-woman show, it does not deconstruct human movements as thoroughly as his previous film "Bait," but just as the ruins are there, the past is calmly present, and the future coexists with the present; by making heavy use of slow motion and reverse playback, he deconstructs time and space. Like a broken record, it evokes "fear" through persistent repetition (down to the measurements, the journal, and the waves). Another point that differs from "Bait" is that this film is shot in color. Because it uses simplified color imagery—moss-covered earth, dark cliffs, and a bright blue sky against a bright red jacket—the long shots look outstanding.

As Jenkin says that he keeps in mind that he is a silent filmmaker during shooting, it seems that, like his previous work, the sound for this film was recorded post-production. It is truly interesting that everything from voices from 200 years ago heard over the radio, to sounds that make you feel the danger to life as the generator is about to die, to the natural sounds of waves and wind, was recorded post-production to reconstruct reality.

Postscript (collected from interviews, etc.)
・The original title is apparently pronounced "ENNIS MAIN." It means "stone island" in Cornish. ・Edward Goldsmith's book "A Blueprint for Survival" appears impressively, but Jenkin apparently hadn't read it until the filming. He had originally planned to include Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," but because he liked the title "Survival," he decided to use this one instead. The content doesn't seem to have much to do with it. ・This film apparently violates several of the 13 manifestos that Jenkin himself established long ago. There were quite a few interviews that pressed him on that, but is it really that concerning?

・Film Data

Original Title: Enys Men
Running Time: 90 minutes
Director: Mark Jenkin
Production: 2022 (UK)

・Rating: 90 points

★ Mark Jenkin Other Works

★ Mark Jenkin's "Bait" The dark side of the vacation business, or a nightmare "without a woman in sight"