Spilt Milk

On a public housing estate in 1984 Dublin, eleven-year-old Bobby aspires to be a detective like his TV hero, Kojak. Recruiting best friend Nell as his sidekick, the pair are ready to find clues and follow leads, wherever they appear. Hints of a far more sinister mystery draw them in once items go missing from Bobby’s family home. The sense of urgency is compounded when his brother disappears following a bitter family fight. The two children set out in search of answers, embarking on a journey that threatens to take them into the darkest corners of the city.

Evocatively recreating details of life in Irish public housing during the era, filmmaker Brian Durnin fashions a unique coming-of-age story that’s by turns charming and harrowing, viewing the heroin epidemic that raged in the Irish capital at the time through a child’s eyes. As the curious leads, young stars Cillian Sullivan and Naoise Kelly demonstrate a wisdom and subtlety beyond their years, bringing tenderness and honesty to the roles of working-class preteens forced to grow up too soon.

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