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BERLIN, GERMANY (FOLHAPRESS) – Asked how she felt about her books being adapted into films, South African writer Deborah Levy acknowledged that her work is descriptive enough to include literary equivalents of close-ups, tracking shots, abrupt cuts, and aerial views.
Amuse yourself, however, upon realizing that little of what you imagined as scenes while writing makes it into film adaptations. “The movie, quite rightly, does not tell the story in the same way as the novel.”
“Hot Milk,” which reaches the Brazilian audience this week, is a very personal adaptation of the 2016 book, not yet published in the country. Levy explores “the strange and monstrous nature of motherhood” in a story described as “hypnotic about female sexuality and power,” according to the English version’s synopsis.
These elements are part of the film adaptation directed by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, in her directorial debut. “I loved the book and knew we would honor it, even though we took a few liberties,” the British screenwriter, known for films such as “Ida,” which won the Oscar for best international film in 2013, and “Disobedience” (2017), told Folha. “Hot Milk” premiered at the 75th Berlin Film Festival in February, receiving mixed reviews.
Lenkiewicz, also a writer as Levy, didn’t commit just a few digressions, but many, not before trying to transfer onto the film, especially at its beginning, the purely visual narratives from the book. Emma Mackey’s character, from the series “Sex Education,” reveals her complex state of mind almost in silence. Dogs barking, snakes, fish, and even jellyfish are used to reflect or interfere with her thoughts.
Mackey plays Sofia, the daughter who accompanies her mother in search of a cure at a popular spa in Spain. Rose, portrayed by Fiona Shaw, has an unspecified health condition that makes her dependent on her daughter and a wheelchair. The consultation with the local doctor, however, suggests that Rose’s suffering is as much psychological as it is real.
Lost like any young person in their early twenties, Sofia alternates between a resigned attitude and discoveries that should be natural on a summer trip, such as sex and passion. “Translating all these feelings was very complicated,” said Mackey. “I wear short clothes for most of the movie. There’s nowhere to hide. Everything is exposed.”
The two actresses spent the entire production period living as their characters. Shaw, who was detail-oriented, asked Mackey to push her in a wheelchair even when going to the bathroom during filming breaks. “I didn’t have much choice,” the actress said. “She hated it,” her colleague later confirmed, laughing.
Rose is a mess. It was a great exercise for me, because I often play characters who are the moral center of the story. Not this time. I had to be simply the cruel, very cruel mother, who doesn’t realize how much she harms her own daughter,” summarized Shaw, who skillfully portrays her Rose, creating comedic moments in the film. With merciless remarks, she emphasizes her daughter’s inability to obtain a driver’s license or get married. “Even though anything like that might mean moving away.
It is from this toxic relationship that Sofia escapes daily. At the beach, she ends up meeting Ingrid, a German seamstress played by Vicky Krieps. The beach romance is irresistible but comes with a weight that the story will present to Sofia as a kind of key to understanding her mother’s own situation.
Lenkiewicz acknowledges that the film does not stray from the predominant female perspective present in his earlier work as a screenwriter. “I’d say it goes further, it’s Amazonian,” he says, making reference to Ingrid’s character, who enters the story riding along the beach. It’s not the film’s only cliché.
The director’s greatest digression, however, comes at the end, when the interpretation of what happened is left to the viewers. “I think people will reach different conclusions. Perhaps there isn’t just one,” said Lenkiewicz.
HOT MILK
– Where in the cinemas
– Classification 14 years
– Cast Vicky Krieps, Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw
– Production United Kingdom, 2025
– Directed by Rebecca Lenkiewicz