Rose of Nevada comes home to Truro for one last live score

After a year on the road, a Cornish ghost story is coming back to where it was made. And it will sound different this time.

Hall for Cornwall in Truro is to be the last venue, and the largest, to host a screening of Rose of Nevada with its soundtrack performed live. The time-slip drama was directed by Newlyn-based BAFTA winner Mark Jenkin, shot entirely in Cornwall and inspired by Cornish folk myths.

Tape machines, synths and feedback loops

The screening takes place on Friday 30 October, with a 7.30pm start.

Mark Jenkin and artist and musician Dion Star will accompany the film using tape machines, analogue synths, guitars, feedback loops and field recordings. The pair perform as The Cornish Sound Unit, and this will be their seventh outing with the film.

The venue seats more than 1,200, so the live score tour ends on home ground in front of its biggest audience.

“You haven’t seen (and heard) it like this”

Mark said: “It seems only fitting that after a year of almost constant touring with the film that we’re going out on a high by bringing Rose of Nevada back home to Cornwall.

“During my travels I’ve witnessed first-hand how people are returning to the movies with an appetite for a live event, something that transcends the streamer experience, whether that be a screening attended by members of the cast or as in this case a screening accompanied by a live score.

“However, this is much more than a straightforward performance of the music alongside the film. It’s a complete reimagining of the entire score. You may have already seen the film, but you haven’t seen (and heard) it like this!”

A boat that comes back after 30 years

The film takes its title from a fishing boat that reappears in its old, now distressed, Cornish harbour 30 years after it and its crew were believed lost at sea in a storm. Villagers who remember better times take it as a sign that the Rose of Nevada needs to go to sea again, and that doing so might change the community’s fortunes.

George MacKay and Callum Turner star as the jobless young men who sign up for the trip with the trawler’s enigmatic captain, played by Francis Magee. But when they return with a hold full of fish, time has slipped. It is 1993, the harbour is bustling, and they are greeted as if they are the original crew.

From Cornwall to more than 30 countries

Since BFI Distribution released it in April this year, Rose of Nevada has been shown in more than 350 cinemas across the UK and Ireland. It has also screened in at least 30 other countries, among them Australia, China, France, Mexico, Spain, Ukraine and the USA. Reviewers have described it as “spell-binding”, “beautiful” and “bewitching”.

The film runs for 114 minutes and carries a 15 certificate. It is directed by Mark Jenkin from a story by him and Mary Woodvine, and was produced by Denzil Monk for Bosena. It was developed with Film4 and co-financed by the BFI (awarding National Lottery funding) and Film4.

Tickets and booking

Tickets for Rose of Nevada + Live Score are on sale now, priced at £19.

You can book through the Hall for Cornwall website, call the box office on 01872 262 466, or visit in person at Back Quay, Truro TR1 2LL.