One of the hottest works in progress at ECAM Forum’s second co-production market, unspooling June 10-13 in Madrid, the Romanian coming-of-age mystery/fantasy drama “Milk Teeth” reunites filmmaker Mihai Mincan with much the same team of his calling card debut “To the North” which bowed at Venice Orizzonti 2022: Oscar-winning sound designer Nicolas Becker (“Sound of Metal”), cinematographer George Chiper-Lillemark (“Immaculate”), and editor Dragos Apetri (“Animal”).
Also on board are four of “To the North” production partners: Romania’s deFilm, France’s Remora Films, Greece’s StudioBauhaus, Bulgaria Screening Emotions, joined by Denmark’s Oscar-nominated producer Monica Hellström (“Flee”) of Ström Films.
The story, penned by Mincan, is again inspired by true events that serve as starting point for the helmer to grapple with painful memories of Romania’s post-communist era, when dreams of a better life after the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 turned into disillusion. Here, the events are set in the final days of Ceausescu’s Romania. The central character Maria, 10, becomes the last witness to her sister’s mysterious disappearance and must find the courage to grow up in a collapsing world.
The idea for the pic first emerged about seven years ago when he read about the tragic case of the kidnapping in 1989 of a little girl in Romania, Mincan said. What intrigued him were a few lines about the sister of the missing girl from the police, describing her as “the mute”. “That triggered something in me,” said the director who gradually incorporated into the script elements of his own experience of growing up in a society where people felt metaphorically speaking “mute” or without a voice of their own. “We basically did what we were told as we felt there was no foreseeable future for our country and for us Romanians,” said the director who was Maria’s age in 1989’
“”Milk Teeth’ is a powerful allegory of Romania’s transition between the communist era and the promise of a new society after the fall of communism in 1989,” added deFilm’s Iona Lascār who produces alongside Radu Stancu. “By representing darkness and void as visual symbolic elements, the film portrays the uncertainty and fear experienced during this period.”
Visually, Mincan said the pic will borrow from two different traditions of coming-of-age dramas: on one hand, the social realistic tradition of Ken Loach (“Kes”), Lynne Ramsay (“Ratcatcher”) or Sean Baker (“The Florida Project”) and on the other the blurring of reality and fantasy in Carlos Saura’s “Cria Cuervos.”
Anti-nostalgia
“When I saw ‘Cria Cuervos,’ I became obsessed with it and Saura’s vision of childhood,” the helmer confessed. “For me, childhood is a period of great confusion, where you don’t have a will of your own. That’s why I wanted to make an anti-nostalgia film, in which a little girl struggles to make sense of the world around her after her sister goes missing. The story therefore turns less and less linear and progresses into a vague dimension.”
To convey the sense of confusion felt by Maria, Mincan said the camera work from George Chiper-Lillemark is mostly raw hand-held, while the sound – currently being designed by expert Nicolas Becker – will “create a balance between the world outside the character, where you can hear things in the distance, and a sensation of pure silence and empty spaces.” “Romania in 1989 was that way – very very quiet. There were few cars, a 10 p.m. curfew which meant people would spend a lot of time in their flats, with electricity cuts, TV programs perhaps only two hours a day,” recalled the director.
In the starring roles as Maria is the young newcomer Emma Mogos, cast opposite professional actors Marina Palii (“Manor House”) and Igor Babiac who play Maria’s mother and father. “I was looking for actors who would remind me of my own parents at the time, face-wise,” said Mincan.
The project received the 2023 Torino Film Lab Production Award and was supported by the national film centers of the five co-production countries, along with Arte Kino, ERT in Greece, TVR, Avanpost Media, and Radio Romania, with a total budget of €2.3 million ($2.6 million).
Lascār said she is thrilled to be part of ECAM Forum’s ‘Last Push’ section with “Milk Teeth.” “I’ve worked in film for 15 years, but this is my first time presenting a work in progress project in Spain. I’m looking forward to chatting with local producers and cooking up some great collaborations.”
Most recently attached as minority co-producers on the Cannes Un Certain Regard entry “I Only Rest in the Storm” by Portuguese helmer Pedro Pinho, deFilm’s Lascār and Stancu are currently negotiating sales and distribution on the feature due to premiere later this year.
A total of eight Spanish and international films in post-production will be pitched at ECAM Forum, next to 15 films in development, 11 shorts and 13 series in development.
“Milk Teeth” BTS
Credit: Sabina Costinel (c.deFilm)
