KVIFF review: I Saw The Face of God In The Jet Wash (2025)
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Imagina
I went to Vienna for the first time recently. Whilst there, I rode the Giant Ferris Wheel at Prater. I’m not usually the kind of person to ride a ferris wheel. But this was the infamous ferris wheel from The Third Man (and – much less famously – was also in Bond film The Living Daylights). A pilgrimage had to be made. As I rode into the sky, I thought of Orson Welles and cuckoo clocks and reflected on my surroundings. In some ways it felt comforting, familiar, a space I know. In others, it felt alien and strange. The people – looking like dots – milled around in hot sunshine, the scene of bright summer abandonment at odds with the black and white, cold serenity of the world as filtered through the eyes of Carol Reed.
Part of I Saw The Face of God On The Jet Wash – the latest short film Bait and Enys Men director Mark Jenkin which just has its World Premiere as part of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – reflects on how the seemingly ordinary takes on a significance when filtered through not only cinema but also popular culture, sculpture, sport and folklore. An unremarkable LA stretch of beach becomes a place of wonderment thanks to its appearance in John Milius’ classic Big Wednesday (for which Jenkin suggests a double bill so brilliant, it would be unfair of me to spoil it here). A football shirt becomes a means of striking of up a conversation with a bleary eyed and jet-lagged stranger.
Shot on Super8, with the fragmented and scratched up imagery putting us into a world that seems both tangible yet timeless, the film ostensibly follows Jenkin as he visits various film festivals and holiday locations whilst trying to think of inspiration for his new movie. He alludes to his own creative process, and chats with strangers about history, about local politics and on – on more than one occasion – Manx cyclist Mark Cavendish. Moving on to France, campsites provide an opportunity to reflect on stone statues or how Jenkin would like to make a version of Daphne du Maurier’s The Birds that is faithful to the short story, Cornwall locations and all, as a statue of Hitchcock looks impassively on. LA gives him the chance to ponder on M*A*S*H and Baywatch, alongside COVID denying 80s pop stars. It’s all set to an ethereal and low key soundtrack that hangs around the film like a guardian angel.
The film seems initially a shaggy dog story of a piece, a hodgepodge of memories, ideas and musings the veracity of which is never entirely pinned down. Jenkin’s voiceover has a playfulness, a sense of mischief that seems reminiscent of the works of John Smith in which we’re never quite sure where ‘Mark Jenkin’ the person, ‘Mark Jenkin’ the filmmaker and ‘Mark Jenkin’ the omniscient narrator of a film begin and end. But there’s also a sense of self-deprecation – Jenkin never refers to his own films by their titles, as it would be somehow gauche to do so.
Many earlier ‘travelogue’ shorts made by Jenkin – amongst them David Bowie Is Dead (2018) and Vertical Shapes In A Horizontal Landscape (2020) – are marked by a certain melancholy, of despair at the modern world. But I Saw The Face Of God In The Jet Wash is typified by an underlying sense of joy and wonder. “The harbour looked just like home. And the buildings looked just like home. And the fishing fleet looked just like home” says Jenkin at one point. In the past, this scene could be seen as a lament, a condemnation of the hegemony of modern life. But here it’s triumphant. A reminder that we all have commonalities, that culture, politics and history can bring us all together as much as they seem to divide us. That one day, we can all go on that Ferris wheel together. Some for The Third Man. Other for James Bond. Other because – you know – it’s a Ferris wheel. But we’ll all be there and allowed to enjoy the view together.
The soundtrack to I Saw The Face Of God In the Jet Wash will be released digitally by INVADA on July 14
Country: UK
Language: English
Runtime: 17′
Production: Bosena
Producer: Denzil Monk
Written| Directed by: Mark Jenkin
Cinematography: Mark Jenkin
Editing: Mark Jenkin
Music: The Cornish Sound Unit
Sound: Mark Jenkin
