Venice-Bound ‘Milk Teeth’ Lands at Cercamon for World Sales (EXCLUSIVE)

International sales company Cercamon has boarded world sales on Romanian filmmaker Mihai Mincan‘s “Milk Teeth,” which will world premiere in the Horizons competition at the Venice Film Festival.

The drama, set during the final days of Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship in 1989, follows 10-year-old Maria who becomes the last witness to her sister’s mysterious disappearance in a small, isolated town. Caught between reality and fantasy, political oppression and the emergence of the “new world” at the dawn of the 1990s, Maria embodies a lost generation of children who believed in freedom only to realize their voices would go unheard.

The film stars Emma Ioana Mogos, Marina Palii, Igor Babiac and Istvan Teglas.

For director Mihai Mincan, the project draws from personal experience while avoiding sentimentality. “Although largely created from personal memories, the world of ‘Milk Teeth’ tried to stay away from any form of nostalgia,” he said. “Thinking about those days, when I was a child and Romania was about to change its identity from Socialism to democracy, I realised not only that childhood had nothing ‘beautiful,’ ‘pure’ or ‘naive.’ But on the contrary, in its tension, its sense of fear and confusion, we can find a reflection of our world today.”

“We were immediately drawn to the bold vision of ‘Milk Teeth’ and the emotional depth of its characters,” said Sebastien Chesneau, CEO at Cercamon. “Mihai Mincan delivers a striking film that speaks to universal themes through a uniquely Eastern European lens. We’re proud to represent such a powerful and resonant work on the international stage.”

“Milk Teeth” is produced by deFilm (Romania) in coproduction with Remora Films (France), Ström Pictures (Denmark), StudioBauhaus (Greece) and Screening Emotions (Bulgaria). The production received support from multiple European film funds including Romania’s National Cinema Center, France’s CNC, the Danish Film Institute and Bulgaria’s National Film Center.

Cercamon has sold widely Gaza-set documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” directed by Iranian-French filmmaker Sepideh Farsi.

“We are delighted to welcome Cercamon as the sales agent for Milk Teeth,” said producers Radu Stancu and Ioana Lascar from deFilm. “Their expertise and commitment to distinctive cinema make them the ideal partner to bring the film towards audiences worldwide.”

For Mincan, “Milk Teeth” marks his second feature following “To the North,” which also premiered in Venice’s Horizons competition in 2022. The filmmaker, who graduated from the University of Philosophy in Bucharest and later earned an MBA from the University of Poitiers, began his career as a journalist before transitioning to filmmaking in 2008.

The project participated in TorinoFilmLab 2023, where it received both the Production Award and Green Filming Award, as well as the Baltic Event Co-Production Market and ECAM Forum 2025.