For a long time, nothing good has happened in this small fishing village in Cornwall. But fortune may be about to change. “The Rose of Nevada”, a vessel lost at sea three decades ago, mysteriously reappears — with only one chance left: to return to the water, so that fair winds may once again blow through this community. Yet on its second return, the new crew comes face to face with the past. Time has slipped back thirty years.
Throughout the course of his career, Mark Jenkin has developed an extremely singular filmmaking practice: He shoots his films on location in a small fishing village in Cornwall, mostly works with people who originate from the area, acts as his own cinematographer, and exclusively uses a 16mm Bolex camera, exploring with great interest the grains and textures of the filmic stock that he uses. This practice gives birth to the unique language of his films, a language which in his latest film finds its most sublime form. He also further cements himself as one of the defining chroniclers of modern day fishermen, documenting with immense tenderness their shared pain. Enormously moving and beautiful, Rose of Nevada is one of the year’s must see films. It stands as the director’s most essential homage not just to fishermen but to the Cornish people at large, to their dying way of life, to their hidden magnificence, to the eternal nobility of their bodies and souls.
Nabil Aouad
