Filmmaker Statement

I grew up in a small seaside town in the South East, where Ill Fares The Land is set. Small towns have always been somewhat insulated from more ‘progressive’ values and repositories for reactionary, right-wing views. However, over the last few years, something has happened in these towns – and indeed, up and down the UK… Fascism has reemerged again. With Ill Fares The Land I wanted to explore, with an unflinching eye, the radicalisation of these sorts of communities, set against the backdrop of the UK’s so-called ‘migrant crisis’, growing inequality and social atomisation. The Mermaid in the film acts as a metaphor for the asylum seekers currently making the perilous journey across the English channel to reach the shores of Britain, only to be met with hatred and violence from large swathes of the native population. Fuelled by a right-wing media and collapsing living standards, these people have become lost to fascism – and alienated from their own humanity. Ill Fares