Director – Mark Jenkin – 2025 – UK – Cert. 12a – 114m
****1/2
A fisherman joins the crew of a mysterious fishing vessel and finds himself inexplicably trapped 30 years in the past when it originally disappeared – plays in a UK director Q&A Tour from Friday, April 3rd, then is out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 24th
30 years ago, the Rose of Nevada, a small fishing vessel, set sail from a small, Cornish coastal village and never returned. Now, suddenly, it reappears in the harbour with its captain looking for crew. Nick (George Mackay) and Liam (Callum Turner), but on their return after their first fishing trip, they arrive back not in the present but 30 years ago.
Apart from this peculiar slippage of time, everyone behaves as if nothing unusual is going on. Nick misses his partner and child. Liam finds himself with a new partner and child, and plays along, taking advantage of what circumstances have offered to him, which doesn’t seem so bad.
Nick, however, feels increasingly isolated and uneasy in this situation.
Jenkin’s film plays out as a strange, enigmatic mystery.
Working as is his wont as director, cameraman and editor, not to mention sound designer and musician, Jenkin takes real pleasure in building up his story from a series of tiny details, necessitated to some extent by his use of a clockwork Bolex camera which can’t shoot a take longer than 27 seconds.
This typically lends his the film a unique, idiosyncratic quality, whether you’re watching the crew of the skiff catching fish at sea, or water cascading over the deck in a storm, or Nick’s failed attempt to fix the roof of his modest, family home.
The saturated colours, in a palette that favours yellows (the crew’s waterproof clothing) or blues (the vivid azure of the water on sunny days) are a marvel to behold.
Actor George Mackay, whose filmography comprises more conventional production methods, throws himself into the piece, making it very much his own, and lending a degree of acting craft hitherto unseen in Jenkin’s oeuvre. He is well paired with Callum Turner as his fellow crew member.
If different again from Jenkin’s prior features Bait (2019) and Enys Men (2022), it shows him once again in complete command of a filmmaking technique that he’s made his own.
In short, this is a step up for Jenkin with stronger acting talent than before at its centre while retaining his unique filmmaking style.
Rose of Nevada plays in a UK director Q&A Tour from Friday, April 3rd, and is then out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 24th.
Trailer: