Having taken part in Venice’s Orizzonti competition in 2022 with his solo directorial debut To the North, Romanian filmmaker Mihai Mincan returns to the Lido with Milk Teeth, a sophomore effort that should travel far and wide based on the recent pedigree of Romanian cinema, as well as its ability to tick multiple boxes (historical context, genre elements, a carefully judged performance by the very young lead actress).
The story spans about a year, beginning in the spring of 1989. Nicolae Ceausescu is mere months away from being executed, marking the end of three decades of his despotic regime. But that is not the crux of the plot, which revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a young girl. Her sister Maria (Emma Ioana Mogos) was the last person to see her, and as a result of the unbearable loss she sinks into protracted episodes of silence, unable to make sense of the world around her as it changes radically while the authorities keep fruitlessly investigating.
Mincan says the core idea – exploring a kind of muteness – came to him in a dream after reading a Communist Militia file from 1989 about a case similar to the one described in the film. Much like Maria, the director belongs to the so-called “lost generation of children” who came of age after the downfall of Ceausescu, and the eventual premise of Milk Teeth became a way to go back to that time period, albeit in a roundabout way, as it’s all seen through the eyes of a child who cannot fully understand the magnitude of the socio-political upheaval while she keeps waiting for signs of her sister’s reappearance.
For the most part, it all rests on the shoulders of first-timer Emma Ioana Mogos, a silent revelation who carries herself with understated energy and maturity, conjuring up an entire world her character struggles to put into words. And while she does receive riveting support from the adult cast, it’s her work that gives the film its main dramatic thrust and emotional staying power, up to and including the final scene.
Around her, Mincan and his collaborators create a world that, as seen through the prism of the child’s viewpoint, is suspended between reality and a slightly more nightmarish layer. Scenes set in the middle of the night veer close to horror, as the coming-of-age plot sends Maria and friends on a quest as though they were junior detectives, only to run screaming when disconcerting shapes pop up out of nowhere (one shot in particular would not feel out of place in the Blair Witch films).
The mystery may never be solved, but that was never the point of Milk Teeth (the meaning of the title makes for one of the more subtly devastating moments in the film). It’s a coming-of-age story where the actual coming of age is fundamentally broken, as the young protagonist grows up at the dawn of a new world she will never fully appreciate, as she is still hopelessly, sometimes helplessly, tethered to the old one.
Director & Screenwriter: Mihai Mincan
Cast: Emma Ioana Mogos, Marina Palii, Igor Babiac, Istvan Teglas
Producers: Radu Stancu, Ioana Lascar, Cyriac Auriol, Monica Hellström, Konstantinos Vassilaros, Poli Angelova, Nikolay Todorov
Cinematography: George Chiper-Lillemark
Costume design: Dana Paparuz
Music: Marius Leftarache, Nicolas Becker
Sound: Nicolas Becker, Cyril Holtz, Benjamin Laurent, Ange Hubert, Frédéric Dabo
Production companies: de Film, Remora Films, Ström Pictures, Studio Bauhaus, Screening Emotions
World sales: Cercamon
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Orizzonti)
In Romanian
104 minutes
