Cinema is a medium that opens us up to many different perspectives. It’s a medium that can give us a tailored experience of the joys and horrors of the world and all the experiences within it. Though rare, some films — like Rose of Nevada — teach us more about ourselves simply through our understanding of them.
When a ghost ship, the titular Rose of Nevada, returns to a Cornish fishing village 30 years after disappearing, new crew members Nick (George MacKay) and Liam (Callum Turner) take the boat out for a fishing expedition. When they return, they find themselves 30 years in the past, when the Rose of Nevada originally disappeared.
Director Mark Jenkin (Bait, Enys Men), who has been asked what the film is about on many occasions, has stayed tight-lipped about his true intentions. Instead he encourages everyone to interpret the film for themselves — a choice that has led to early discussions about the film’s meaning. Is it the externalization of identity and self? Generational atrophy in a small town? The burden of historical memory? I’ve heard all these interpretations during post-screening discussions, and there are no right answers. Nevada is more of an experience than a linear narrative to be understood. It is loaded with various themes that the viewer can use to piece together their own interpretation. The film’s 16 mm cinematography captures the foggy Cornish fishing village, the visuals drenched in a dreamlike shroud of mystery that leans into the surrealism of the unfolding story.
Rose of Nevada has no easy answers. Its impressionistic style doesn’t give you a key to unlock the plot. Instead it gives you a canvas on which your mind can paint its own meaning. The real fun comes after the screening, when you can exchange takes with others, as if leaving an art gallery. It is a unique and welcome experience in a polarizing niche few auteurs can pull off — but a niche Jenkin is finding a home in.
