“Hot Milk” in the cinema – Rebecca Lenkiewicz: “Everyone carries their darkness”

Sofia (Emma Mackey) and her mother Rose (Fiona Shaw) are in the center of “Hot Milk”. Rose suffers from an enigmatic illness, which is why they visit a miracle healer (Vincent Perez) in Greece together. That sounds like a close mother-daughter relationship.

Your relationship is complex – not toxic, but you are dangerously close. Sofia has been more like a mother for Rose in many ways since the age of four. There is undoubtedly a mutual unhealthy dependency between them – and at the same time a love that is not visible in the film at first glance. Rose sticks to the past and Sofia on Rose. It does not allow herself to break away from her. Sofia wants Rose to overcome her inertia and finally act on her own drive. Rose is afraid to leave Sofia or that Sofia leaves her.

How did you create a distance and close to the two?

I like to trust my actor. Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw made suggestions. Your actions should feel authentic and real. In everyday life, people don’t talk as we do. Our situation is staged a little. We have to hear each other and we look at each other, but in life you let a word fall here and there. You are here and there, but rarely in one place, because you do something on the side. This dynamic is transferred to the entire room at Sofia and Rose. Even if the two are apart, they are connected. You can feel the invisible umbilical cord between them, because always – even at a distance – there is a certain tension between the two.

Interview

dpa/Soeren stache

Rebecca LenkiewiczBorn in 1968, was the first living author to perform a piece on the Olivier stage in the Royal National Theater in London (“Her Naked Skin”, 2008). With Pawel Pawlikowski, she wrote the script for “Ida” and won both an Oscar and a BAFTA as the best foreign language film in 2015. She wrote numerous screenplays, including “She Said” (2022). “Hot Milk” is her debut as a director.

There is also the great picture where they do not sit opposite each other, but in the room offset with their backs …

… and rose counts who she hates while Sofia wonders: Am I that? Sofia and rose look like an unequal couple and are also entertaining in their own way.

Then Sofia meets on the Ingrid beach (Vicky Krieps), which as a powerful modern Amazon on them works.

Ingrid is like a spark that sparked Sofia’s change. She is a free spirit that plunges into everything she does with tremendous energy. But she is not the one she pretends. Trauma is also liable to her. Sofias and Ingrid’s relationship with each other is not easy because love is never.

Why do book and film have the title “Hot Milk”?

The title carries something to it: breast milk. The heat of Spain runs through the book, the heat of Greece our film. Even Sofia’s job as a barista in London, where she heats up milk and foams, reflects this motif. In the novel, the author Deborah Levy mentions the Milky Way. In addition, “Hot Milk” is simply quite erotic.

They clearly separate from each other day and night. During the day you can feel the scorching heat, at night the film has something fantastic, perhaps also nightmare due to the artistic implementation. Why are you doing so artificially?

Sofia’s nightmare vision and her memory dream should feel in a way away from reality. I wanted people in “Hot Milk” to always work truly. Almost as if you have an overwhelming out -of -body experience, but you are real yourself. The events develop their own dynamics, and this makes them work more intensely. The night has its very own meaning and lets us feel everything more.

The film is preceded by Louise Bourgeoi’s quote: “I have been in hell, and I tell you: it was wonderful.” What is the connection to Louise Bourgeois?

She is an artist who I admire very much and who worked until her 90s. The film is mainly about women who try to free themselves from social constraints. The quote is very nice because it shows: Nothing remains as it seems. The film sometimes feels like a trip to hell that revolves around itself: the desire for love and associated the first real love that does not work can feel like hell if you – like our characters – be stuck. Everyone carries their own darkness and you have to explore this darkness. You can’t give away this darkness. You can’t get rid of them. It is part of your own DNA as soon as you enter this world.

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The film is not just about life and death, but also about your personal experiences …

When I described Rose in the script, I often had to think of my father because we have had similar moments. He was a brilliant man, but not an easy person. We were in an emotional place where love arises, but we were not found in any simple terrain. My father finally preferred life to life. Rose has the hints of my father, but not to my mother, because we have a very good relationship with each other.

Should we also be able to determine our death ourselves?

If you are chronically ill and there is no hope of improvement, you want to divorce from life as long as you are still at a clear mind and physically fit, then you should have this right. Of course, it would need clear rules, but in the end the choice should be left to everyone.

“Hot Milk”, UK/Greece 2025. Director and book: Rebecca Lenkiewicz. With: Vicky Krieps, Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw, Vincent Perez. 92 min. Cinema release: July 3.