ROSE OF NEVADA

Mark Jenkin; editor: Mark Jenkin; music: Mark Jenkin; cast: George MacKay (Nick), Mae Voogd (Nick’s wife), Callum Turner (Liam), Francis Magee (Murgey), Mary Woodvine (Mrs. Richards, senile old woman), Adrian Rawlins (Mr. Richards), Yana Emily Penrose (Jess and Linsey), Rosalind Eleazar (The widow Tina), Emily Daglish-Lane (Morvah); Runtime: 114; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Denzil Monk; Film4; 2025-UK)

“Enigmatic sci-fi fishing ghost story.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
 
Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin (“Bait”/”Enys Men”) uses as his location a fishing village in Cornwall for his enigmatic sci-fi fishing ghost story. It was shot on 16mm, giving it a dream-like quality. The film’s title comes from a fishing boat that vanished from a Cornish fishing village and mysteriously returned.

At the same Cornish harbor it departed thirty years ago, the ‘Rose of Nevada’ suddenly appears in tip-top shape without a crew. Tina (Rosalind Eleazar), the widow of one those fishermen who never returned, is told by the local business leaders they’re sending the boat out with a local crew on a fishing trip.

They recruit an old salt as captain (Francis Magee) and two young deckhands–the single pub -crawling drifter Liam (Callum Turner) and the financially strapped family man Nick (George MacKay).

Their fishing trip is a success, as they bring back a good catch. But when Liam goes into the pub, Tina is there with a child and calls him by her lost husband’s name. While Nick is called Luke, who was the son of his neighbors (Adrian Rawlins & Mary Woodvine).
 
What takes place never is explained. The story, about loss and believing again things will work out, is gripping, the dialogue is sparse, and the acting is superb. 

It played at the Venice Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 6/20/2026  GRADE: B
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