Parental guidance

ACTRESS FIONA SHAW AND DIRECTOR REBECCA LENKIEWICZ TELL LYNN RUSK HOW NEW FILM HOT MILK EXPLORES MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS AND PSYCHOSOMATIC ILLNESS

- LYNN RUSK

"I HAD the easier job - it’s much easier to play the selfish person," reflects Irish actress Fiona Shaw.

The TV Bafta Award winner, 66, is speaking about her role as Rose - a mother with a mysterious illness in Hot Milk, an adaptation of Deborah Levy's 2016 novel.

Set against the scorching backdrop of a Spanish summer, the film follows Rose and her daughter Sofia, played by Sex Education's Emma Mackey, as they travel to the coastal town of Almeria in search of a cure from a local healer.

Confined to a wheelchair and suffering from chronic pain, Rose is entirely dependent on Sofia whether it’s to leave the house or simply fetch a glass of water.

An increasingly frustrated Sofia hopes the clinic will restore her mother’s mobility and, in turn, grant her the freedom and independence she desperately craves.

Fiona, who won a TV Bafta for her role as Carolyn Martens in Killing Eve, praised her 29-year-old costar for helping shape the emotionally charged dynamic between the two women.

"Emma had to decide, in each scene, how she would cope with her mother’s behaviour but the mother just continues on. She isn’t thinking about the effects, and that’s the problem," Fiona explains.