“Hot Milk”, interview with actresses Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey

February 21, 2025

Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey as mother and daughter in Hot Milk, the debut feature by Rebecca Lenkiewicz

“Hot Milk”, interview with actresses Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey Chiara Nicoletti

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Directorial debut by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, “Hot Milk“, is in competition at the 75th Berlinale.

Distributed by Mubi worldwide, the film is an adaptation of the 2016 novel by Deborah Levy.

It follows Rose (Fiona Shaw) and her daughter Sofia (Emma Mackey) as they travel to Spain to find a cure for Rose’s mysterious illness.

The co-dependent relationship between the two is destined to be shaken up as Sofia meets a woman she enters a passionate affair with.

Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey discuss their approach to this women’s story which is very universal in its core and reveal how they worked in this film that speaks even more to its audience when words are not involved.

Plot

Set in the scorching heat of a Spanish summer, the film follows Rose (Fiona Shaw) and her daughter Sofia (Emma Mackey) as they travel to the seaside town of Almería to consult Gómez (Vincent Perez), an enigmatic healer who may hold the key to Rose’s mysterious illness, which has led her to now use a wheelchair. But in the sun-drenched town, Sofia, trapped till now by her mother’s condition, begins to shed her inhibitions as she is drawn to the magnetic charms of a free spirited traveler, Ingrid (Vicky Krieps).
Sofia’s increased freedom becomes too much for her controlling mother, and as the hot sun beats down, their relationship simmers with pent-up resentments and bitterness, threatening to tear the fragile threads that hold them together.

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

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