The Milk of Sorrow

La teta asustada

Spain, Peru

2009

100 Min

Color

1.85:1

Spanish, Quechua

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
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PROD Antonio Chavarrías, Claudia Llosa, José María Morales

CAST Magaly Solier, Susi Sánchez, Efraín Solís, Marino Ballón, Antolín Prieto

PROD DES Patricia Bueno, Susana Torres

SOUND Edgar Lostanau, Fabiola Ordoyo

Berlinale (Competition): Golden Bear, FIPRESCI Prize, London (Film on the Square), Karlovy Vary (Horizons), AFI FEST (New Lights Competition)

Synopsis

Fausta, we are told, suffers from ‘the milk of sorrow’, a melancholy transmitted through her mother’s breast milk. For Fausta’s mother, like many in her village, was raped during the years of Peru’s bloody civil conflict in the 1980s, and Fausta still lives with the consequences of the violence. Only Fausta has found a way of protecting herself both physically and emotionally to ensure that she doesn’t suffer the same fate as her mother. Her mother’s death, however, brings change and Fausta is forced to make decisions that will impact on how she considers and makes sense of her past. With The Milk of Sorrow, Peruvian director Claudia Llosa expertly crafts a film that functions as a tale both of individual trauma and of the wider collective memories and ordeals of the nation. Magaly Solier gives a mesmeric performance as the troubled Fausta, whose story is told against a mapping of the rituals of the community in which she lives and works. Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, The Milk of Sorrow is a striking reflection on communication and community that confirms Llosa as a distinctive talent in contemporary world filmmaking. —bfi

Director

Claudia Llosa

Claudia Llosa was born in Lima, studied in Newton College and received a degree in communication studies in the University of Lima. She is the niece of the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa and the film director Luis Llosa. At the end of the 1990s she moved to Madrid, Spain. From 1998 to 2001 she studied at the film academy Escuela TAI. At the end of her studies she started working on the script for Madeinusa. She moved to Barcelona working in the advertising industry. Madeinusa won the prize for the best unpublished script at the 2003 Havana Film Festival.

In 2009 Llosa finished her second film The Milk of Sorrow (La teta asustada) which was shortlisted for the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. It was the first Peruvian film nominated for the Golden Bear award, and won the main award.

On February 2nd, 2010 Llosa’s The Milk of Sorrow was nominated for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film Category.

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Fernando

21Dec11

I think this movie is a great set of beautiful images without any sense of cohesion. The script does not lead anywhere, and I'm not saying that it has no apparent message, because many great films do not transmit any messages. The problem is that, after enduring a main character that looks retarded for over an hour, all her adventures and sufferings do not matter at all.

Francisco R.

16Oct11

I really don't know what to think of Llosa's intentions here, was she trying to make a serious portrait of her country or what?, because the movie itself borders on art-house camp most of the time without anything of value in its mind other than exploiting the hypocrisies of the audience. Still, I'm not saying this is a bad movie, it's just a very disquieting one.

Griffin Xanto

31Jul11

send thislink

Cani

27Feb11

Irresponsible and shallow. The film is condescending of the customs of people who were once my neighbors. I sat through it, but it all became especially inexcusable when I considered that Satyajit Ray made films that were faithful to his people without having to descend to arthouse theatrics that have been exhausted to all hell.

ALEX MNH and 2 others like this

Jordany, lady_lazarus

Lorenzo

19Mar11

Hm, it's an interesting criticism and I would like to understand it. Would you like to explain how the film is condescending of the customs of the people you are familiar with? I watched the film from the sidelines and I don't know what the directrice is like but I thought the film would go on at certain people how they treat the natives besides focusing on the inner life of a young suffering woman which is presented in empathic pictures.
Cani

19Apr11

What's there to explain? She fetishizes them like an apologetic European or American would.
PoutingBear

20Dec11

In light of your comments, I think we'll have to revisit this one, as it sounds as though we've been had.
Cani

23Jan12

Your time would be better spent watching films by Jorge Sanjinés. Now there's a camera that doesn't film natives and mestizos like so much menagerie.
PoutingBear

23Jan12

Thanks, we'll check him out.