Anyone who’s holidayed in a so-called tourist town would know that not everyone looks at the influx of cashed-up tourists with unbridled enthusiasm. In fact, some locals may treat the visitors with outright hostility.
Problems from gentrification and rising property costs to the loss of easy on-street parking are offset by a regular, healthy injection of money into the community. These issues – felt in every tourist destination from Venice to Byron Bay – are explored in the documentary-style drama Bait, screening at SBS On Demand.
English writer/director Mark Jenkin says his movie – which was, unsurprisingly, a critical success and did well at the box office, too – explores the theme of entitlement.
“[Bait is about] the tension that rises when people feel they’re entitled to something that conflicts with people who think they’re entitled to something different, especially within a very small community,” he tells .
The BAFTA award-winning English-language film is set in a picturesque Cornwall coastal village where commercial fishermen struggle to survive. More and more of them are turning away from this traditional way of life to find easier, more lucrative means to make a quid by catering to the growing number of well-off outsiders flocking to their idyllic town each summer.
Edward Rowe as Martin Ward. Source: Early Day Films
Viewers see the ideological battle through the eyes of Martin Ward (Edward Rowe), a resentful and emotionally disturbed fisherman. Martin is barely getting by, mainly net fishing on the shore and selling his meagre catch to the local pub. His seemingly impossible dream is to save enough money to buy his own boat.
Brother Steven (Giles King) has quit the family business and now uses their late father’s boat to take visitors on sightseeing trips, much to Martin’s disgust. The decision has caused a rift between the brothers as well as Steven’s son, Neil (Isaac Woodvine), who sides with his uncle.
“If [Dad] could see you now he’d be spinning in his grave,” sneers Martin as his brother cleans up the rubbish left by drunken tourists on his boat. Steven – a realist who believes the future lies in tourism, not fishing – angrily retorts, “Open your eyes!”
Isaac Woodvine waiting on set (hence the colour image). Source: Early Day Films
Elsewhere, Martin has an antagonistic relationship with middle-class Londoners Tim (Simon Shepherd) and Sandra (played by Jenkin’s partner Mary Woodvine), who’ve bought the Ward family home on the harbour and converted it into a bed’n’breakfast, which they operate during the summer holidays. He’s dismayed at the renovations the couple have made to the house, and also repeatedly clashes with them about leaving his truck in their private parking space.
The animosity between the two sides is exacerbated when the couple’s teenage son Hugo (Jowan Jacobs) learns that his sister Katie (Georgia Ellery) is dating Neil.
Viewers know something bad is coming – due to several brief but disconcerting flash-forward shots that foreshadow coming events – and it eventually does when a senseless tragedy at the docks radically changes all their lives.
Bait has a strikingly stark look, courtesy of Jenkin shooting it in black and white on a manual clockwork Bolex 16mm camera. The resulting footage is scratchy and over-exposed in parts, giving Bait the appearance of a recently unearthed, badly battered print from 60 years ago, not something produced in 2019.
Edward Rowe is an interesting choice for the lead role. He’s best known as a YouTube comedian whose over-the-top Cornish character, “Kernow King”, has spent more than a decade promoting Cornwall while having a gentle dig at the idiosyncrasies of the county and its inhabitants. However, there’s no humour in Rowe’s portrayal of Martin, a decent yet troubled man clinging to the past and unwilling to embrace the inevitable changes taking place in the village.
Director Mark Jenkin on set with Isaac Woodvine and Edward Rowe. Source: Early Day Films
Much of the film is practically silent, with lots of close-up shots of the surly fisherman as he goes about his daily routine, mending lobster pots, collecting fish he’s caught on the beach and driving around town in his beaten-up ute.
The director admits that beneath his rage and bluster, Martin is full of flaws and hypocrisy, like many people. He rails against the out-of-towners and his own brother for selling out, yet he’s happy to sell fish to the pub to feed those same tourists. Jenkin says the movie is not a diatribe aimed at tourists or tourism in general.
“It’s about the attitudes,” he says in . “There’s perhaps an uncompromising attitude in everyone in this film. I’m not trying to demonise anyone.”
In the end, there are no villains in Bait, only people from very different backgrounds trying to co-exist in a village that’s seeking a balance between its traditional fishing past and a tourism-oriented future.
This film may well stir your appetite for seafood. Have a go at for green rice with garlic, parsley, clams and prawns (aka Arroz verde) from seafood master, Rick Stein, whose popular restaurant is in Padstowe, Cornwall.
Make Arroz verde
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