NERTHUS- A UNIQUE BRITISH MOVIE

NERTHUS - written by Genevieve Garner and Veronica Harrington

Please view our pitch deck 

NERTHUS is a Black Comedy, Folk Thriller and “Authentic British Western” based in the ancient New Forest in Hampshire. The short film follows an eccentric community of traditional New Forest pony breeders (Commoners) as they struggle to come to terms with being displaced from their small farms by a psychopathic groomer.

Our story focuses on Sybil, a traumatised and selectively mute girl on the cusp of womanhood. When her grandmother is the most recent victim of a prolific will-hunter in the village, she unwittingly awakens Nerthus, an invisible ancient deity of the land, the forest spirit forgotten since the time of the Jutes almost 2,000 years ago. The miscommunication between Sybil and her family enables an almost maternal relationship to take place between Sybil and Nerthus. In the end, the deity’s merciless judgment ends the will-hunter’s criminal spree!

The tone of NERTHUS is its strength: a hallucinatory and folkloric modern parable. It is an equestrian film, a unique example of an authentic British western. The vastness of the New Forest and its cultural isolation is palpable, from the character’s personalities and experiences, to the literal sweeping moors. Here horses graze freely; it is the humans that make way for them.

Our film celebrates the New Forest Commoner’s symbiotic relationship with nature, which Sybil exemplifies not only in her exploration of the land, but through her animal husbandry. Ruth Lester, the evil woman, represents the parasitic modern tendency to possess land and accrue money, forsaking morals, humanity, and conscience in the process.

Currently, legal recourse is extremely difficult given the ingratiating nature of the groomer’s work. Not only does the film cover the very real issue of adult grooming amongst the elderly, specifically in more rural societies, it entwines it with the concept that those who are selfless and more in touch with the land will be rewarded– the meek shall inherit.

We strive to make a Hallucinatory sync-up between recent times and a speculative take on New Forest’s mysterious pre-Christian history.

This is a story about belonging, compassion, greed, religion and the supreme power of nature in its entirety.

We are 3 old friends (two New Foresters, one American). The stars have aligned for us to bring this project to life, and we will shoot this film in June.

Not only do we want to make this 16 minute short something to be proud of, we’d like to be able to pay our crew and treat them right. We’d also like friends and family to feel proud of it and love it too. Plus we’ve got stunt horses to sort out - it would be nothing without the stunt horses! The funds raised will go towards lodging, the stunt horses, crew fees, and post production.

Any help you may offer in creating this wild vision and we will be forever grateful.

Thank you,

Genevieve and Veronica

Writers - Genevieve Garner + Veronica Harrington

Director - Genevieve Garner

Cinematographer - Sam Hayes

Genevieve Garner, our director and co-writer, has grown up on the Forest. She's from a New Forest Family and is an expert horsewoman , who has immersed herself in British history and cultural analysis. Primarily working as a sculptor for the last decade, Gen has also worked as a stylist and as an artist manager, expertly fusing creativity and management. She has an uncanny, unprecedented ability to create original work. She first wrote an epic poem that became the germ of NERTHUS, and decided it would be an incredible tale to foray into filmmaking– a love letter to her homeland.

Veronica Harrington, our Producer and co-Writer, first came to the Forest in 2019 and within 24 hours had become stuck in a bog, requiring the assistance of two people to pull her out. Shortly after gaining a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from the AFI Conservatory in the States, she came back to England and began developing this story with Genevieve. Like all who tred here, a part of her soul remained stuck in the bog.

Sam Hayes, our Director of Photography, grew up with Genevieve in the Forest. As well as his experience as a camera operator on major films (THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, NAPOLEON, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY), he understands the deep, abiding feeling of being in The New Forest. It is a famously supernatural place.

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