– The promising British filmmaker has just concluded production on her Goodfellas-backed sophomore feature, which stars Naomi Ackie, Alison Oliver and Éanna Hardwicke
Director Luna Carmoon (© 2023 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa – fadege.it, @fadege.it)
After Hoard’s impressive debut in the Venice International Film Critics’ Week in 2023, which led to a BAFTA nomination, British director Luna Carmoon has now finished shooting her much-anticipated second feature, To Make Ends Meat, which has just wrapped a six-week shoot in and around London. Toplined by an exciting lead cast of Naomi Ackie (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Sorry, Baby), Alison Oliver (Saltburn, Wuthering Heights), Éanna Hardwicke (Saipan) and Armande Boulanger (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), the film follows three women, all in debt to despicable men, their pasts and each other. The women find themselves bargaining to survive in the only language these men seem to understand: consumption and violence.
The film was produced by Helen Simmons, of Erebus Pictures, and Loran Dunn, of Delaval Film, with Cheri Darbon and Chloe Culpin as co-producers. Away from its primary producers, its large list of financiers includes BBC Film, the BFI, True Brit, Goodfellas, Mother, ProdCo, Arts Alliance, Affine Films, Cofiloisirs and Blush Film. Its status as a partial French co-production with Cofiloisirs and Goodfellas is also noteworthy, with the latter handling international sales and bringing the film to the imminent Cannes Marché de Film, together with UK-Ireland rights holder True Brit. Beloved French DoP Hélène Louvart (La Chimera, Never Rarely Sometimes Always) lensed the film.
For Carmoon, “This movie has come from the belly of my soul, of all things, tar and family – from my grandmother’s experiences in Newington Lodge, to my mother Toni and the cleaning houses she took me to where darker things lingered, to teddies and chicken farms.” Carmoon is also a notable cinephile, with a liking for the more esoteric styles of British film (see her 2022 Sight and Sound list here), with To Make Ends Meat’s logline very slightly echoing Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.
“We are so excited to announce this film and, soon, to share it with the world. To Make Ends Meat is hugely ambitious, dripping in genre, and is deeply resonant with our times; we’ve no doubt it will deliver a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience thanks to Luna’s unique vision,” said Simmons and Dunn.
Mia Bays, director of the BFI Filmmaking Fund, hailed Carmoon as “a natural-born filmmaker, with a singular perspective shaped by watching, living and absorbing. We are thrilled to be supporting her on another extraordinary cinematic journey, following the one we took with her on Hoard and, before that, with her shorts.”
