In the Berlinale film Hot Milk, Netflix star Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw, known from the Harry Potter films, engage in an extremely uncomfortable psychological duel.
Warm sand and the soothing sound of the sea in the background: this could actually be a relaxing vacation in a Spanish fishing village, far from the rest of the world. As idyllic as the backdrop of Hot Milk seems at first glance, Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s directorial debut soon tells only of the sun mercilessly burning into worn-down souls.
Hot Milk is one of 19 films competing for the Golden Bear at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival and is based on the novel of the same name by Deborah Levy, which became a bestseller nine years ago. It tells the story of a toxic mother-daughter relationship, which spans 92 minutes of suspense and uncomfortably oscillates between psychological thriller and erotic drama.
Netflix star Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw go head to head in the Berlinale competition with Hot Milk
Sofia (Emma Mackey) doesn’t know exactly what happened to Rose (Fiona Shaw). Since the earliest days of her childhood, her mother has been in a wheelchair and complains of pain. She cannot move her legs. Only once a year she manages to get up and walk a few steps. This is exactly the story she tells to the faith healer Dr. Gomez (Vincent Perez), who takes her into treatment in the coastal town of Almería.
Using unconventional methods, Dr. Gomez is supposed to achieve what decades of medication and doctor visits have not. As soon as he begins to ask Rose questions about her life, however, she avoids them. The same applies when Sofia wants to know what happened in her mother’s past. There is always something else that is more important, such as a glass of water for the non-existent thirst.
No wonder Sofia finds herself in her mother’s wheelchair in her nightmares. Rose’s illness has long since become her daughter’s prison. Passive-aggressive looks are the order of the day. However, Rose doesn’t see most of them – or she consciously blocks them out. She would rather ask for the next glass of water or some other trivial matter that suddenly seems incredibly important.
Although the relationship between mother and daughter is obviously strained, the two somehow manage to get along, even exchanging tenderness. It is only when Sofia sees Ingrid (Vicky Krieps), a tourist seemingly liberated from all the world’s problems, riding on a horse on the beach that her longing for a different life takes over. But then she is threatened by the prospect of breaking under the weight of Ingrid’s ultimate freedom.
In her directorial debut, Rebecca Lenkiewicz conjures up an extremely uncomfortable atmosphere
Even before Hot Milk, Lenkiewicz brought complex female characters to the screen, but not as a director, but as a screenwriter. Ida, Disobedience and Colette were important stops on her journey. Her biggest film to date, She Said, tells the story of the female journalists whose research into the allegations of abuse against Harvey Weinstein changed Hollywood forever.
With Hot Milk, Lenkiewicz ventures into the director’s chair in addition to her work as a screenwriter, playing with genre elements more than ever before in her career as a filmmaker. As she begins to explore the movement radios of her individual characters, mood swings create an uncomfortable feeling and leave us wondering what kind of film this really is.
Are we in for the kind of sweltering heat of Woman in the Dark? Or will the thriller factor of Sundown take over soon? Does Hot Milk escalate the tense situation between Sofia and her mother and reveal a lie/trauma? Or does Ingrid, as a seductive force, finally destroy the fragile relationship between the two protagonists? Whatever it is, it simmers at every second.
Lenkiewicz prefers to linger in this moment of uncertainty and observe the expressive faces of her two leading actresses. For Mackey, who celebrated her breakthrough with the Netflix series Sex Education, Hot Milk, after the excellent Emily Brontë biopic Emily, is the next film in which she can prove herself in a leading role. Resentment and struggle collide in her eyes.
Even more bitter than Aunt Petunia in Harry Potter: Fiona Shaw is a force to be reckoned with in Hot Milk.
But the most outrageous performance belongs to Fiona Shaw. After she shook the Star Wars universe in Andor two years ago, she now conjures up a bitter presence that often reminds us of the strict features of her Aunt Petunia from the Harry Potter films. She commands, determines, restricts. Does not allow her pain. Suffers and complains. She is both oppressed and an oppressor.
The fact that the script, of all things, is the biggest weakness of Lenkiewicz’s directorial debut is tolerable when the camera is able to capture two such strong lead performances. Mackey, whose face is lit up by the sun, even when she’s moping. And Shaw, who sinks into the shadows of the holiday home as if Petunia, afraid of the wizarding world, had decided never to leave the house again.
