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Film Brain joins George MacKay and Callum Turner as they sail into the past in Mark Jenkin's enigmatic and unsettling film, a slightly more mainstream affair, but the filmmaker with the Bolex has lost none of his idiosyncrasies.

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00:00George Mackay and Carolyn Turner become trapped in a time warp when they set sail on the Rose of Nevada.
00:06In a fishing village in Cornwall, the titular vessel has mysteriously returned after the ship and its crew disappeared at
00:12sea three decades earlier.
00:14Mackay and Turner play two men who both decide to crew the ship for some much-needed cash,
00:19but when they return from fishing, they realise they've been taken back in time to the 90s and have taken
00:24the identities of the lost crew.
00:26This is the layers from Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin, who if you're not familiar with his work,
00:30he shoots his films on a clockwork 16mm Bolex film camera and all the sound is recorded in post,
00:36so that gives his movies a very distinctive analogue quality.
00:40There's a texture to it that fits the rugged sea and landscapes,
00:44but also a kind of woozy dreamlike quality because it feels strangely detached and artificial.
00:50There's a strong throwback feel as well, very fitting for a movie displaced out of time.
00:54It's gorgeous looking with eye-popping colours, although some of the scenes on the water are so shaky you might
01:00get authentically seasick.
01:02Rose of Nevada is Jenkin's third film and it forms a sort of spiritual trilogy with its predecessors,
01:08Bait and Ennis Mane.
01:09I saw the latter a few years back and it wasn't really for me.
01:13I found it to be largely incomprehensible.
01:15This is a lot more digestible and with the presence of some name actors, it's a more mainstream film.
01:21It's clearly his biggest production yet, especially in an ambitious storm sequence where Francis McGee's skipper is swept overboard and
01:28they have to rescue him.
01:29It is still, however, uniquely Jenkin's film and his identity as a filmmaker remains intact, so this won't be for
01:36everybody.
01:37Edward Rowe and Mary Woodvine, regulars of Jenkin's previous films, also pop up in the supporting cast.
01:42In a way, it splits the difference between Jenkin's earlier works.
01:46You've got the social commentary on the decline of fishing towns and how the tip-off of they've gone back
01:50to the past is to see it alive and thriving again.
01:54But there is a touch of folk horror in that the past and nostalgia is a trap and a sense
01:59of inevitable doom pervades over the second half.
02:02Both men are initially bewildered by the change, but Turner seems to adapt to his new life better, becoming a
02:08family man, which is queasily uncomfortable as he's now the father of the woman that he was flirting with in
02:14the present.
02:15That contrasts sharply with Mackay, who is desperate to get back to his wife and kid and resistant to accept
02:20his new identity, which only causes him more pain.
02:23It is a very unusual film that prioritizes mood and atmosphere over narrative, but it is a haunting ghost ship
02:31story that further proves that Jenkin is one of the most unique British directors working today.
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