
Jenkin’s handcrafted approach challenges mainstream digital norms, offering indie cinema a fresh visual language that could influence future low‑budget productions. The film’s time‑travel premise and star power position it to attract both festival audiences and broader commercial interest.
Mark Jenkin has carved a niche in contemporary British cinema by refusing the convenience of digital workflows. His commitment to shooting on a clockwork Bolex H16, a camera limited to 28‑second takes, forces a disciplined, almost performative production rhythm. The resulting grainy texture, punctuated by scratches and occasional red‑light leaks, creates a visual fingerprint that feels both nostalgic and unsettling, reinforcing the thematic ambiguity of his narratives.
*Rose of Nevada* expands Jenkin’s preoccupation with place and memory, setting its tale in a remote Cornish fishing village haunted by a vanished ship. The plot intertwines economic desperation with a supernatural time slip that thrusts the protagonists back to the early 1990s, a period still resonant for many viewers. Casting George MacKay and Callum Turner adds mainstream credibility, while the film’s modest budget and artisanal aesthetic promise a compelling counterpoint to high‑gloss blockbusters, potentially drawing festival programmers and discerning audiences alike.
From an industry perspective, the film exemplifies how low‑budget, craft‑driven projects can achieve visibility through strategic trailer releases and targeted festival circuits. Its June 19, 2025 release aligns with a growing appetite for original, regionally rooted stories that offer fresh visual experiences. If successful, Jenkin’s model may inspire other independent filmmakers to revisit analog techniques, reinforcing the market viability of handcrafted cinema in an increasingly digital landscape.

After the impressive homespun fables Bait and Enys Men, Mark Jenkin returned last year with Rose of Nevada, a journey into the past starring George MacKay and Callum Turner that continues the Cornish director’s tactile sense of filmmaking. Ahead of a June 19 release, 1-2 Special has debuted the first trailer.
Here’s the synopsis: “Three decades ago, the Rose of Nevada vanished at sea, along with its crew. Now, it has returned. In a remote fishing village, its reappearance is embraced as an auspicious sign, with the local citizens convinced the luck of their economically devastated community may turn, if only the ship sails again. Joining the crew is Nick (George MacKay), desperate to provide for his young family, and Liam (Callum Turner), a mysterious drifter eager to escape his past. After a successful voyage, they return to harbor, only to find that nothing is as they remember it.”
Leonardo Goi said in his review, “Even when ostensibly set in the present, Jenkin’s works all seem to exist in some undetermined past, and in Rose of Nevada, a few objects adorning Nick’s room––an old poster, a tape player, some cassettes––suggests a bygone era long before the boat catapults him back to the early 1990s. But nothing heightens that anachronism more than the film’s look. Jenkin shot Rose of Nevada on film with the same camera he used for Bait and its follow-up, Enys Men: a clockwork Bolex H16 with a maximum runtime of 28 seconds per take. Though a lot more polished than they were in the monochrome, hand-processed Bronco’s House and Bait, the images are similarly rife with scratches and red-light leak flashes. To call those aberrations, however, would be grossly misleading; these irregularities define Jenkin’s aesthetic, the main reason why his films feel so mysteriously alive.”
See the trailer below:
The post Rose of Nevada Trailer: Callum Turner and George MacKay Travel Through Time for Mark Jenkin first appeared on The Film Stage.
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