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Luna Carmoon’s first movie, puckish coming-of-age romance Hoard, was an attention-ripper back in 2024.
Now the Londoner is back with a second project as a writer-director – a horror this time – and it’s just wrapped filming.
To Make Ends Meat stars Mickey 17’s Naomi Ackie, Wuthering Heights standout Alison Oliver and French actress Armande Boulanger (The Returned).
The trio play three women ‘all in debt to despicable men, their pasts, and each other, who find themselves bargaining to survive in the only language these men seem to understand: consumption and violence’.
‘This film has come from the belly of my soul, of all things, tar and family,’ says Carmoon in a statement. ‘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. So much of my family and our memories seep deeper than you’d think.’
‘I cannot think of a more prevalent time than now to paint and stitch and weave to screen, it is my rage that has fuelled this. The weatherings of being a woman and how you are cannibalised by systems, by men, women and then by debts we sometimes write ourselves into because we believe we deserve it so. This has been made with all my blood, figuratively and yes, physically of all of me. I hope I know it will rupture, splinter and cry to us all when it is stitched together.’
Saipan’s Éanna Hardwicke co-stars in the film, which shot for six weeks in and around London.
‘To Make Ends Meat is hugely ambitious, dripping in genre, and deeply resonant to our times, and we’ve no doubt it will deliver a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience thanks to Luna’s unique vision,’ say producers Helen Simmons and Loran Dunn.
‘Luna is outrageously talented,’ adds BBC Film’s Kristin Irving. ‘It’s a privilege to support her and her producers once again as she conjures her vision on a grand, blood-soaked, cinematic canvas with an extraordinary cast and crew.’
Carmoon is working with a female-led team that includes La Chimera cinematographer Hélène Louvart.
To Make Ends Meat already has a UK distributor in place so expect to hear more on a release date later in 2026.
Hayley Squires and Joseph Quinn on Hoard: ‘It takes bravery to make big swings in this business’.
