SWEET MILK LAKE
An ORIGINATE FEATURE - DEVELOPED with the support of Vic Screen, FINANCED by VicScreen, Screen Australia, SBS, Arenamedia, MIFF Fund, The Post Lounge, Feracious Entertainment and WeirAnderson Films.
Synopsis:
“After being mistaken for his brother, a young trans man adapts to a precarious new life in his estranged father’s rural town.
City boy Jake is at a loose end. Unemployed, single and holed up in a granny flat behind his family home, he lives in the shadow of his cisgender twin brother, successful real estate agent Sam. On an impulse, he takes a trip to the remote country town of Sweet Milk, where his terminally ill, estranged father (Kieran Darcy-Smith) still lives, totally unaware that Jake has transitioned. When his dad mistakes him for Sam and Jake misses the moment to correct him, an unforeseen opportunity lands in his lap: to fit in as masculine in a place where nobody suspects he’s trans. Adopting Sam’s identity, he manages to connect with his father for the first time, while a budding romance with local Toby (Hunter Page-Lochard, Kid Snow, MIFF 2024) – himself an outsider in this macho setting – offers further reinvigoration. But the longer Jake spends in Sweet Milk, the more tangled the web he weaves. How long can he hold on to his secret, and what will happen if the truth gets out?”
- Melbourne International Film Festival
Writer/Director: Harvey Zielinski
Producers: Harvey Zielinski with Molly O’Connor and Philippa Campey (Film Camp)
Executive Producers: Michele Turnure-Salleo (Feracious) and Deanne Weir (WeirAnderson Films)
PREMIERING AT MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL AUGUST 2026