by MARK JENKIN
Written by Mark Jenkin / Photography Mark Jenkin / Montaggio Mark Jenkin / Starring Edward Rowe, Mary Woodvine, Simon Shepherd, Giles King / Produced by Early Day Films
UK 2019 / 89’
V.O. sub. ITA
first screening
Times (modern ones) are tough for fishermen in Cornwall since many were forced to sell their boats to rich capitalists. Fisherman Martin does not have a boat anymore, while his brother Steven has transformed his into a cruise boat, which is a source of tension between the two.
What is striking about the film, even before learning about the plot and story, is how it is shot: it is entirely in black and white, filmed with a hand- cranked 16-mm Bolex camera from the Seventies, perfectly in line with Eisenstein’s style.
The theme of the water and the acting pushed to the extreme of comedy hint at the L’Atalante by Vigo with Michel Simon playing the character of the grumpy fisherman.
DIRECTOR
© Steve Tanner
Mark Jenkin is a director, editor, screenwriter, director pf photography, and producer from Cornwall. He has won numerous and prestigious prizes with his debut film ‘Golden Burn’ (2002).
In his career he has made low budget documentaries, and short and long films such as ‘The Man Who Needed a Traffic Light’, and ‘The Lobsterman’.
He was given a BAFTA Award in the Outstanding Debut for a British Writer for the film ‘Bait’ (2019).
© Road Movies, NDRArte, 2020