You cannot tame the tide, says Cornish director

Rose of Nevada was shot in Mullion and other parts of west Cornwall

"You cannot change the tide or control the sea," says writer and director Mark Jenkin who has finished his third film set on the Cornish coast.

Newlyn-born Jenkin won a Bafta for his debut Bait in 2020, a film documenting tensions between longstanding and new residents of a Cornish fishing village.

Despite having sworn off working with boats because of the logistical challenges, Jenkin is now about to premiere Rose of Nevada, a drama mystery filmed in west Cornwall.

Actors George MacKay and Callum Turner take the lead in this tale of a fishing boat lost at sea with all hands 30 years ago, which then appears out of the blue in the small derelict harbour it had set sail from.

The remaining villagers take this as a sign that the two men should take the vessel, the Rose of Nevada, to sea and bring back fish and good luck.

After a successful trip, the fishermen return to harbour but the villagers greet them as if they were the original lost crew, lost 30 years prior.

Mark Jenkin vowed he would never work with boats again after his last two films

Jenkin said after filming Bait and the 2023 folk horror film Enys Men, which centred on a woman living on a Cornish island, he had said he "didn't want to do anything with boats again".

"It's too difficult working with boats and the tide, on top of other things like the weather," he said.

"I said we're absolutely definitely not going to be working with boats, then next thing we find ourselves down at Mullion at the beginning of seven weeks of shooting with a boat."

Jenkin said Rose of Nevada was the largest film he had made, with a 140-strong crew that included film students from Falmouth University, where he is an associate professor of film practice.

He said filming in the sea was particularly challenging.

"The one thing you cannot mess with is the tide, and the sea in general," he said.

"You can work with the weather, you can build gazebos to shoot under if there's too much rain or sun, but with the tide there's nothing you can do.

"You cannot control the tide and sea."

Rose of Nevada is set to premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on 30 August.

It is then due to feature in Toronto for its North America premiere and on to New York for its American premiere.

Jenkin said he hoped the film would come to UK cinemas in late winter or early 2026.