www.silverguide.site –

The audience that turned out for the first preview showing of Mark Jenkin’s ghostly time travel film Rose of Nevada in the Cornish fishing town of Newlyn could hardly have been more supportive and attentive. But Jenkin admitted showing his work to a home-town crowd and taking part in a Q&A in front of people he knew so well made him a little uneasy.

“This is the greatest town in the world,” said Jenkin, who is from Newlyn. “I see Cornwall as being at the centre of the world. But the Cornish screenings are the ones I get most nervous about. I can’t control what people think of the film but I do have a certain amount of control over the authenticity of my work. If a local audience tells me a film doesn’t feel authentic, that would hurt. The Cornish audience is the most important.”

Jenkin has been celebrated in recent years for his gritty Bafta-winning film Bait, which examined tensions in a Cornish fishing village, and the eerie folk horror Enys Men, set on an island off the coast of the far south-west of England.

Rose of Nevada, the tale of a Cornish fishing boat and crew that slips through time, is being seen as a step up and has earned him excellent early reviews and an appearance on the cover of May’s edition of the venerable film magazine Sight and Sound.

“I keep reposting the picture of the cover on social media,” Jenkin told the Guardian as he girded himself for the preview at the Newlyn Filmhouse, based in an old fish cellar and smokery close to the harbour front. “Part of that is good publicity, but the more I post it, the more I believe it’s real and it’s actually happened.”

Rose of Nevada was shot entirely in Cornwall, mostly in the harbours of Hayle on the north coast and Mullion in the south. The fishing boat is a working vessel hired for the shoot. “During filming when there was a break, the skipper would take it out and do some fishing,” Jenkin said.

Like its predecessors, Rose of Nevada was filmed on 16mm using a clockwork Bolex camera, with Jenkin’s vision of his homeland very much front and centre rather than used as a pretty backdrop to the drama. The concept is that if the films are authentic, audiences around the world will understand and relish them even if they know nothing of Cornwall.

Jenkin is being heralded as a talisman for Cornish film-making but he made the point that when he moved back to his homeland from London at the turn of the century, he found a small but passionate grassroots independent cinema scene already present.

He said the very fact there was a beloved cinema in Newlyn was a joy. “I think it’s a real testament to the power of cinema as an art form. We’re constantly told that cinema’s dead, nobody goes to the cinema. And we’ve got an arthouse cinema in the middle of Newlyn.”

Jenkin argued that his idea of Cornwall being at the centre of the world was not deluded. “It’s like, this is my world here. So that is the centre of the world. It doesn’t mean it’s better than anywhere else, but it’s the bit that I’m engaged with.”

Just as important as authenticity for Jenkin and the film’s producer, Denzil Monk, is sustainability and inclusivity. They try to have as little impact on the Cornish environment and community as possible. So most of the props they used, such as nets, fish boxes and buoys, are back out at sea now.

Monk said: “When your work is emerging out of a place, out of a community, out of a culture, then you want every aspect of that to be respectful of that cultural context and to contribute to it. We try to step very lightly.”

Laura Giles, the managing director of Screen Cornwall, said Rose of Nevada was a significant moment for Cornish film-making. “It’s a local film-maker telling a story set and rooted here. Mark is a talisman and doing a fantastic job, but I think there’s other people coming through as well who are really interesting.”

Other successes have included the Cornish-language film Poll Pri (Clay Pit), directed by Edward Rowe, which tells the story of a community in central Cornwall fighting for survival. Another is A Year in a Field, the slow but compelling tale of 12 months in the life of a 4,000-year-old stone that stands sentinel in the Cornish landscape.

Brett Harvey, who made the Cornish road movie Long Way Back, said Jenkin’s success put a spotlight on Cornwall. “Cornish film has always been booming but now the rest of the world is paying attention,” he said.

Dan Simpkins, the creator of a documentary called The Lost Boys of Carbis Bay, which follows a group of explorers into derelict Cornish tin mines, said there was a growing recognition of the importance of regional film-making.

“Audiences increasingly want to see their own communities and identities reflected on screen, alongside big-budget blockbusters,” he said. “It’s a genuinely exciting time to be a film-maker in Cornwall.”

• Mark Jenkin will be taking part in a series of Q&A screenings before the Rose of Nevada’s official release in the UK and Ireland later this month.