When a fishing boat, the Rose of Nevada, lost with all hands 30 years ago, mysteriously reappears in the old harbour of a forgotten Cornish village, for those who remember, it’s surely a

sign. The boat must go out to sea again and maybe then the luck of the devastated village will turn.

Young father Nick (George MacKay) and enigmatic newcomer Liam (Callum Turner) join captain Murgey (Francis Magee), and they head to sea. But when they return, satisfied with their haul, something is amiss - they’ve slipped back in time, and the villagers greet them as if they are the original crew.

The Garden Cinema View:

Watching Mark Jenkin’s films can be like skimming the surface of sleep. There’s a cosiness to his scratchy 16mm images and a disconnect to the post-synchronised sound and dialogue that feels ripped from a dream. Beyond these idiosyncrasies, Rose of Nevada returns to themes of economic depression amongst the fading Cornish fishing industry, with a timeslip narrative which also holds a supposedly ‘better’ past in ambivalent tension with the ghost town present day.

Jenkin’s own impressive sound design, a cast of enjoyably weathered faces, and the attention to textures (rust, lichen, fish) makes Rose of Nevada an immersive viewing experience. It’s a West Country Twilight Zone filtered through the stranger corners of 1970s British television.    

Cast:
George MacKay, Callum Turner, Francis Magee