Milk Teeth is a sensitive film about loss, loneliness and resilience, which allows us to step into the mind of a child who copes in silence with the trauma of her sister’s disappearance amid the final days of a totalitarian regime. Set in 1989, a few months before the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s dictatorship in Romania, Milk Teeth follows Maria, a ten-year-old girl, who is the last witness to her sister’s sudden disappearance during the prosaic chore of taking out the trash. Torn apart by loss, Maria must find the strength to confront grief, fear and the powerlessness of her desperate parents, who struggle with the cold indifference of the authorities hidden behind piles of statistics. The camera empathetically follows Maria as she tries to make sense of a rapidly collapsing world, in a historical setting carefully crafted with nostalgic period detail and sepia-toned imagery. Milk Teeth is the second feature film of a director who, with this piece, confirms his skill at portraying emotions and eliciting the audience’s empathy with all his characters, caught in a story that could happen to anyone.

Awards: Venice FF 2025 (World Premiere - Orizzonti Competition)