HOT MILK

The directorial debut of Rebecca Lenkiewicz, an acclaimed screenwriter of IDA, for which she received an award from the European Film Awards for Best Screenplay. A seasoned dramatist and screenwriter, she has collaborated not only with Paweł Pawlikowski but also with Sebastián Lelio (DISOBEDIENCE), Steve McQueen (the SMALL AXE anthology) and Maria Schrader (SHE SAID). She also penned the script for PATHS TO LIFE, featured in our First Things First section.  It was only a matter of time before a screenwriter with such a rich and diverse portfolio tried her hand at directing.

Her first feature, HOT SUMMER, which premiered in Competition at this year’s Berlinale, is adapted from Deborah Levy’s bestselling novel, a book Lenkiewicz has described as “extraordinarily feminine writing”, and one she loved from the very first read.  That spirit permeates the film, which has been likened to a cross between CALL ME BY YOUR NAME and THE LOST DAUGHTER – sensual, yet anchored by vivid, emotionally charged female characters.

Set in the Spanish town of Almería, HOT SUMMER follows Sofia (Emma Mackey), a student who accompanies her paralysed mother Rose (Fiona Shaw) to a seaside clinic. Though devoted to her mother, Sofia finds herself stifled by Rose’s overwhelming presence. While Rose undergoes treatment, Sofia steals moments of freedom – wandering along the coast, befriending locals, and entering into a tender, intimate relationship with Ingrid (Vicky Krieps), a fiercely independent traveller. Through these encounters, her yearning for independence intensifies, fuelled by stolen dates away from her mother’s suffocating grip.

HOT MILK is not only a holiday sapphic romance, but above all a tense internal struggle between the duties of an adult child and her own needs. With each passing minute, the atmosphere becomes even more heated, exposing the toxic undercurrents in the mother–daughter bond with striking intensity.

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Text: Michał Sołtysek