Mark Jenkin Explores His Cornish Roots in ‘Rose of Nevada’

A boat washes ashore in a small town in Cornwall, 30 years after its last appearance. Tempted to board the boat and cross the seas in an attempt to fish and embark on an adventure, but what lies ahead for the 2 young men (Callum Turner and George MacKay) is a whirlwind of confusion as they encounter something mysterious and fishy in the seas. Returning to only find out they travelled back in time with the town residents believing them to be the original crew of the titular boat – Rose of Nevada. Read our Mark Jenkin Rose of Nevada interview.

Director of Bait (2019) and Enys Men (2022), you may come to know him as a BAFTA award winner for his debut work on the former. Mark has a brave habit of taking on projects by himself as he is credited as the director, writer, editor and cinematographer. Clearly, he is committed to realising his own, unique vision and a rare testament to how capable indie filmmakers can be. Exploring the 70s on film by combining a mixture of genres like horror, sci-fi and mystery, all while grounding the story to its setting, prioritising authenticity and history to make his specific story feel universal, and real.

I sat down with director Mark Jenkin to deep dive into his latest film. We discuss his Cornish roots, the importance of reflecting on your background and his personal mission to shed light against the stereotypes, showing the true nature of his community and his beautiful friendship with George Mackay and Callum Turner.

Zakariya Ahmed: The film brings you back to the Cornish, 70s folk horror setting so let’s dive into your background. Why did you feel that you needed to use your background specifically to create the narrative and setting around it, and why you felt it was important to look back into your roots?

Mark Jenkin: The Cornishness of the film is to do with authenticity, really. I mean, I’m a big believer in specific stories being the more specific you can be, the more universal the theme and the appeal of the film will hopefully be. I can’t control whether people are ever going to like my films. They might not like the story. They might not like the characters. They might not like the way it’s shot, the music, the sound design. So I don’t make films particularly with an audience in mind, other than me. I know my own taste and I can follow my gut when I’m creating a film with my collaborators.

The one thing I do have control over is the authenticity of the setting of the film. So, I can only make films that are going to feel authentic in a place that I know and understand intimately, and that’s Cornwall. So, in some ways, the films are very Cornish, and I’m very proud that they’re Cornish films, but I don’t want them to be films that are only relevant to Cornish people. So, for me, the setting and the context is Cornish because I can do that authentically. Hopefully, the stories are more universal than that.

Zak: I’m not from Cornwall but I felt like I could resonate with the film so I would say it does a great job of doing that.

Mark: Great. Well, I think that’s the thing. I think as audience members, and I am an audience member more than I am a filmmaker. I think I can recognise something that’s authentic and certainly recognise something that’s phony. I could watch an Australian film and I’ve never been to Australia, but I could recognise a phony Australian film. I probably couldn’t explain why it was phony but I think I would be able to sense whether something was authentic or not. You don’t have to have come from Cornwall hopefully, to recognise the authenticity. Also, you don’t sit in a film and go, “Oh, I recognise the authenticity of this setting.” You just engage with a film, and if you really decode it, I think part of the reason why you connect with films is because you recognise there is an authenticity. That’s why there is a universal in the specific.

Cornish people are more sophisticated than you are led to believe

Zak: Why do you feel as a Cornish artist that you want to shed light to your background, and knowing that nowadays your background may not be as publicised or popularised. Do you have a personal mission to bring it to the spotlight?

Mark: A little bit, yeah. I’m on a bit of a crusade to promote Cornwall. An authentic Cornwall. The real Cornwall that I’m standing in. The real Cornish people, because quite often Cornwall’s been used as a backdrop for other people’s stories, like a lot of other places in the world. If you’re from somewhere that’s distinct and beautiful, you should feel pride in that, that people want to come and make films in Cornwall, and set films in Cornwall because it’s distinct and it is beautiful.

But quite often they’ll use it as a wallpaper behind other people’s stories, and we get misrepresented through being simplified. Our people outside of the big urban centers are portrayed as being unsophisticated and stupid. My mission is to address that balance and just say, ‘Well, this is actually the real place. These are the real people who are sophisticated people.’ We know Cornwall’s an ancient land with ancient cultures, its own distinct language, its own ancient language, but with a history of being very outward-looking.

The Cornish travelled the world by sea, long before there was ever any roads leading into England. But now we get kind of portrayed as this little backwater at the end of the UK. Whereas we have this proud history and culture that lives on through the people. That’s not to say every Cornish person is a great person. We’re the same as everybody else. I think that’s the beauty of the world, everybody’s different and everybody’s the same.

Zak: During the shooting process, was there any moment or day in particular that struck you as making you feel so proud to do a film about Cornwall?

Mark: I think the day before we started shooting. I have three traditions that I always stick to when I’m making a film. I’m very superstitious. One of them is, I will always cook a meal for everybody the night before we start. I started that tradition when I was making films with four people, and now we have a huge cast and crew on this one. But I still cooked a meal for everybody the night before. Luckily, in true Cornish style, the first day of the shoot was postponed because the weather was so bad. So luckily, I had a day off after the day when I had to cook this meal for everybody. I think that was maybe the proudest moment when I looked around the studio and saw all of these people had come from all over the place and descended on this small town in Cornwall to make this Cornish film, and that was probably the proudest moment.

After that, once we started shooting, I didn’t have a second to have any feelings about anything. Then last night, yesterday at the premiere, standing there taking the ovation, and looking at that was, trying, I was pretty focused on not crying, so I had other things on my mind, but looking around, seeing my mum and my sister who’d come over. Seeing George, Callum, Mary and Ed, Ian and Michael, my post-production team who’d come over as well. Seeing the producers, thinking about the absent producer Denzel Monk, who’s the sole producer of the film, who wasn’t here because his daughter got married yesterday and he was in Wales. I think they were the two moments, that first moment just before we started, just before the cameras rolled and the moment where-

Zak: The credits roll.

Mark: Yeah! Nice. [In acknowledgement of my pun]

Mark: When you hand it over to the world, where you haven’t got control of it anymore. That’s a scary moment as well, because you got this ovation in the room, but I still didn’t know what the reviews were like. I was waiting to speak to the publicists. What are the reviews like. Trying to enjoy that moment with my family, with the film family, with the audience, you know. They were those 2 proud moments. Being in Venice, the oldest film festival showing a Cornish film on the world stage, that’s for Cornwall.

Zak: George has a similar background to yours. What kind of relationship did you have with him over the course of the film when exploring your town and land? What drew you in particular to him and Callum?

Mark: Well I met George, and I think he did an interview the other day where he said when we met, we didn’t mention the film at all. We just chatted for hours about our lives and other films, everything but the film. I’m glad he said that because that’s my recollection as well. So I just met George and I don’t meet actors and get them to read the script or anything like that. I just meet them and chat to them and see whether we’re going to get on and while we’re chatting about other things, I can look in their eyes, I’m looking at them in a close-up and going, “yeah you’re going to look good on camera. You’re going to fit this role. You’re right for this.” So George straight away I was like ‘bang!’ I wanted George and everybody told me George is like the loveliest person you’re ever going to meet. I’m still waiting to find out what the catch is with George because he is the loveliest person and don’t seem to have a fault.

Zak: He was very intelligent when I met him.

Mark: Yeah. He’s got everything, and Callum’s the same. When I first met Callum, I knew Callum from a TV series that was on E4 in the UK a long time ago. I’d said to Mary at the time, I was looking at that TV show to look at another actor for another film I was developing and then I said to Mary, that guy, other guy, he’s got something amazing going on. There’s a real enigma around him. He’s a movie star in a TV series. Then, when I met Cal, it was the same. We just chatted and I said to Mary after I met him, I said ‘they’re so different. They’re absolute chalk and cheese. They couldn’t be more different,’ and then as I’ve got to know them, I’ve realised that on the surface they’re different, but underneath they’re very similar. That really helped in the film because it made me realise I’ve written these 2 characters that were supposed to be binary opposites, but were actually two halves of the same person in a lot of ways.

The most beautiful thing about making this film is that I’ve come out of this with a beautiful friendship with the two of them. I woke up this morning with a voice note from Callum. The first thing I did was listen to his voice note, and I was in tears straight away. So, yesterday I said to Mary, we may or may not have a great film, I don’t know. We haven’t found out yet. We haven’t premiered it. But what’s something I do know for sure is I’ve got two best mates. I didn’t expect to get that out of this film. So, you know, I said to Mary, if all the reviews were awful and the film gets buried and never goes anywhere, it doesn’t matter. I’ve got George and Cal. We’ll go again on something else.

Rose of Nevada premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 30th August. The film stars Callum Turner and George Mackay, and was written and directed by Mark Jenkin.

Thanks for reading our Mark Jenkin Rose of Nevada interview. For more, stay tuned here at Feature First.