BABYTEETH

Milla (Eliza Scanlen) is sixteen and gravely ill. Her parents in Sydney – Henry (Ben Mendelsohn) and Anna (Essie Davis) – have settled into a routine of worry and medication when Milla falls in love with Moses (Toby Wallace), a small-time dealer in his early twenties who lives on the street. For the parents he is the nightmare they never dared imagine. For Milla he is her first love, and with him returns an appetite for life that the illness had taken from her. The family must decide how much chaos they will allow when time is short. “Babyteeth” (Australia, 2019) is the feature debut of Shannon Murphy.

The source material is a play by Rita Kalnejais, who also wrote the screenplay. Murphy tells the story not as an illness drama but in chapters whose tone shifts between comedy and pain. The film had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival 2019, where Toby Wallace won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor. “Babyteeth” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2019.

Shown at the 2019 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2019 · Film Archive