Hot Milk is a difficult film, in that same way that society may cast someone (usually a woman) as being difficult. If the purpose of the religion of cinema is to make you feel something, Hot Milk will do that, although I can’t guarantee that you will walk out feeling better. Hot Milk transports you to a hot, restless, and at times seemingly endless, summer where although you are surrounded by the beauty of the Mediterranean coast, you can’t appreciate it. It takes a long, hard look at the world of pain, illness and disability through the story of a mother who hasn’t been able to walk since her (now adult) daughter was 4 years old. The tension is held taut throughout the film, most visibly in both of the principal actors’ faces (Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw) which contort terribly through their despair and frustration. You can really see the hard work of acting here, it is such a deeply uncomfortable film to watch, you can’t imagine having to live through it over the weeks and months of filming. There really isn’t much in the way of relief, even the daughter, Sophia’s, love affair seems constantly at risk of being damaging. It is the kind of film where there is a sense that at any point, someone will say or do something awfully shocking (and they do….) You almost want to laugh to break the tension.

I hope I have transmitted the overarching emotional state of this film to you as well as Hot Milk did to its audience. Because actually the feeling from this film, which has lingered well into my evening, shows how effective a piece of art it is. It is a film which demands a high level of attention. It pulls you into a tedium where every day is unbearably long which accurately reflects the world of its characters. It is another one of those films which I think I could only tolerate because I was in a cinema, at home it would have been too easy to look away. I haven’t read the book it is based on by Deborah Levy, I almost don’t want to but it has captured my interest. There are some parallels to the psychological drama also based on a novel, The Lost Daughter (2021) directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, featuring Olivia Colman. Hot Milk is the director, Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s, debut film, having primarily written and directed for theatre which I think comes across. The script is almost minimalist, every word feels carefully chosen to cut through. I won’t spoil it but there are some particularly callous quotes from mother to daughter, “you never were brave”.

I do recommend that you go and see it and I think there is an important conversation to be had around the thorny psychological issues that it raises. Just tread carefully and maybe don’t go when you’ve had a bad day.