Derek vs Derek: the farming feud film screening across Cornwall

Two men called Derek stand on opposite sides of a stormy field, one holding a shotgun, the other a spade. Between them is a hedge that used to mark an ordinary boundary dispute. Now it is the fault line in one of farming’s oldest arguments: what is land actually for?

A feud between two neighbours, both called Derek

Derek vs Derek follows two real Devon farmers with nothing in common but their first name. Derek Banbury runs an intensive dairy operation and sees himself as doing his bit to feed the nation. His neighbour, Derek Gow, has gone the other way entirely, turning his own farm over to nature and breeding back some of Britain’s rarest wildlife as the land heals.

It does not stay tidy. Gow’s wild boar and beavers escape, dig up land they were never invited onto and dam up the streams that cross it. The community around them takes sides. Somewhere along the way a flood, a cull and a great deal of frustrated hedge-cutting force both men to reckon with what they actually believe.

Coming to five stages across Cornwall

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Nature Partnership is backing a run of Cornish screenings, hosted by 99p Films, through September and October.

• This Sunday 20 September, 4.30pm to 8pm — Princess Pavilion, Falmouth. This date also includes a Q&A with Derek Banbury and Derek Gow themselves.
• Wednesday 14 October, 6pm to 9pm — Eco Park, Porthtowan (Mount Pleasant Eco Park).
• Wednesday 21 October — St Ives Community Orchard.
• Friday 23 October — Redwing Gallery, Penzance.
• Saturday 24 October — Woodland Valley Farm, Ladock, near Truro.

Tickets and full start times for each date are through 99p Films, who run their screenings as shared evenings rather than straight cinema trips, building in time to talk afterwards.

A local nature partnership with a stake in the question

The Local Nature Partnership works to grow nature across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and this is exactly the tension it deals with day to day: how much of the county’s land can be farmed hard and still leave room for nature to come back. Sharing a feud between two farmers who have landed on opposite answers is its way of putting that question in front of an audience without telling them what to think.

“It’s not farming. It’s just a mess,” is Derek Banbury’s verdict on his neighbour’s rewilding project. Cornwall audiences get to form their own view from this Sunday.