“Hot Milk” has found a home. A press release confirms that the adaptation of the bestselling Deborah Levy novel, which marks renowned screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s directorial debut, has secured distribution. IFC Films acquired U.S. rights to the film, while MUBI picked up rights for the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Latin America, and Turkey. Distribution deals have also been made with Metropolitan Films (France), The Searchers (Benelux), Scanbox (Scandinavia), M2 (Eastern Europe), A-One (Baltics), Front Row (Middle East), and Shaw (Singapore).
A tense mother-daughter drama, “Hot Milk” stars Jessie Buckley, Fiona Shaw, and Vicky Krieps. “The heat and atmosphere of Almería become an epic canvas for this intimate exploration of sex, love, and the bonds that tie us all together,” the press release teases.
“Rose (Shaw) and her daughter Sofia (Buckley) travel to the Spanish seaside town of Almería to consult with the shamanic Dr. Gomez, a physician who could possibly hold the cure to Rose’s mystery illness,” the synopsis reads. “But in the sultry atmosphere of this sun-bleached town Sofia, who has been trapped by her mother’s illness all her life, finally starts to shed her inhibitions, enticed by the persuasive charms of enigmatic traveller Ingrid (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, and leading them to a dramatic conclusion.”
Christine Langan (“The Queen”) and Kate Glover (“The Phantom of the Open”) are producing. The crew includes editor Lucia Zucchetti (“Ratcatcher”), costume designer Sophie O’Neill (“Ali & Ava”), production designer Maxine Carlier (“Fish Tank”), and make-up and hair designer Nicole Stafford (“The Death of Stalin”).
Lenkiewicz’s screenwriting work includes “Disobedience,” “Colette,” and “She Said,” the upcoming biopic about the journalists who took down Harvey Weinstein. She is the first living female playwright who has had work performed at the National’s Olivier Theatre. She received a European Film Award for penning “Ida.”
Buckley stars in the horror pic “Men,” out this Friday, May 20. This year she received an Oscar nomination for her supporting turn in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s psychological drama “The Lost Daughter.” Her other credits include “Wild Rose,” “Fargo,” and “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”
Shaw, who appeared in “Colette,” was recently seen in the fourth and final season of “Killing Eve.” “Enola Holmes,” “Baptiste,” and “Ammonite” are also among her credits.
Krieps’ latest, existential drama “More Than Ever,” is screening at Cannes. She nabbed a César nomination this year for “Serre moi fort,” and is known for her roles in “Phantom Thread,” “Old,” and “Bergman Island.”
