The Milk of Sorrow (2009), Directed by Claudia Llosa

Cast Magaly Solier as Fausta Susi Sanchez and Aida Efrain Solis as No Barbara Lazon as Perpetua Delci Heridia as Carmela Karla Heredia as Severina Fernado Caycho as Melvin Miller Revilla Chengay as Melvincito Writer Claudia Llosa Spencer Salazar as Jonathan Summy Lapa as Chicho Maria del Pilar Guerrero as Maxima Leandro Mostorino as Jhonny Anit Chaquiri as Abuela Edward Llungo as Marcu Daniel Nunez as Marcos Lucy Noriega as Perpetua Producers Marina Charun Antonio Chavarrias Claudia Llosa Angels Masclans Jose Maria Morales Miguel Morales Cinematographer Natasha Braier Film Editor Frank Gutierrez Art Directors Patricia Bueno Susana Torres

Original Music Selma Mutal Music Supervisor Claudia Llosa Music Recorder Fernando Novillo

Awards 2009 Berlin Golden Bear Best Movie 2009 International Film Critics 2009 Gramado Film Festival, Best Movie 2009 Gramado Film Festival, Best Director Claudia Llosa 2009 Gramado Film Festival, Best Actress Magaly Solier 2009 Guadalajara International Film Festival, Best Movie 2009 Guadalajara International Film Festival, Best Actress Magaly Solier 2009 Quebec Film Critics Award, Best Movie 2009 Lima Film Festival, Best Peruvian Movie 2009 Lima Film Festival, National Cinematography Corporation Claudia Llosa 2009 Lima Film Festival, Best Peruvian Movie, Best Actress Magaly Solier 2009 Havana Film Festival, Best Movie 2009 Havana Film Festival Best Art Direction Susana Torres and Patricia Bueno 2009 Bogota Film Festival, Best Movie 2009 Peruvian Association of Cinematographic Press, Best Peruvian Movies 2010 Goya Awards, Best Spanish Language Foreign Film, Nominated 82nd Academy Awards, Best Foreign Language Film, Nominated 2010 Ariel Award, Best Ibero-American Film, Nominated (Internet Movie Database-IMDB, 2012)

Plot In The Milk of Sorrow, directed by Claudia Llosa (2009), the protagonist Fausta (Magaly Solier) is a sad a solitary figure, which stems from events occurring before her birth in war torn Peru, where the communist terror organization Shining Path wreaked havoc upon the country and its citizens. Upon her deathbed, Faustas mother sings a horrible, ageless song of violence and sufferings she underwent while pregnant with Fausta. As a result of violent rape and brutality she experienced at the hands of Shining Path rebels, the impact of such cruelty was transmitted to Fausta with the milk from her breast. Therefore, Fausta is afflicted with the malady of la teta asustada (the frightened teat) or the milk of sorrow. Fausta is marked by fear, unable to speak, to be touched by anybody, and she has a potato in her genital region to protect herself from the possibility of male sexual violence. However, this vegetable grows sending roots from her body and producing illness within. Fausta takes a job as a housekeeper to Aida, a wealthy Spanish pianist, in order to afford to bury her mother in her native village. Aida treats Fausta and other indigenous staff in a condescending manner. She takes interest in Fausta upon learning of her ability to construct original songs. These songs are Faustas way of dealing with her life and link her to her past in which songs and oral traditions are prevelant in Quecha communities. Aida steals the composition for which she performs with great success at a concert without acknowledgement to Fausta or the agreed compensation. Fausta prevails and breaks from her sphere of fear to retrieve what she is owed. No, a gardener who also works for Aida, befriends Fausta and proves to be her link to a larger world and acts as her kind savior. The ending of the film, shows Fausta receiving a flowering potato plant from No, which suggests that she too has blossomed, despite the unhealthy soil from which she came. Analytical Overview The Milk of Sorrow in a sense plays on folkloric traditions and could be considered magical realism, in which it does not seem unnormal that Faustas state is brought on by her mothers milk. This is accepted by her family members, who tend to ignore her. Llosa also presents a dichotomy, with Fausta and her mother clinging to old traditions and others who are not beholden to the past. The festive wedding scenes among the less affluent citizens show that despite humble circumstances, celebrations are very important and presented as lavishly as possible. The family does not place importance on providing Faustas mother with a traditional burial, but more focused on her cousins wedding, a nod to the future. Llosa masterfully constructs a heroine, who is laden with ideas of the past, but eventually must break free in order to become an individual woman. By working as a maid, she moves beyond her known environment, which results in Fausta being impacted, as well as influencing those within this setting (No and Aida) (Oppenheimer, 2010). Fausta, who has experienced great illness as result of blocking her genital area, ultimately decides the fear of being violated is far less than the ongoing pain she has experienced and decides to have the potato removed. Fausta also she realizes that she has to take a stand in order receive her pay, which requires her to travel from her

home alone. Through these acts, Llosa demonstrates a quiet individual awakening and subtle evolution of feminism in Faustas character and spirit. Benamou (1995) suggests that the efforts of Latin American women filmmakers are affirmed through their use of testimonies, contemporary and retrospective commentaries, and film texts themselves to create a memography of their collective works and experiences, which serves to recast their legacy according to matrilineal logic. Literary Basis The Milk of Sorrow is based on Harvard anthropologist Kimberley Theidons book Entre Prejimos, which explores the lives of women who were raped by soldiers during Perus civil war. Theidon was awarded the Latin American Studies Association 2006 Premio Iberoamericano Book Award Honorable Mention for outstanding book in the social sciences. Llosa indicates that the film is not a direct adaptation of the book, but a fictional story based on blended accounts of womens testimonies chronicled by Theidon (Harris, 2010). Llosa states she was captivated with the manner in which Andeans communicate about their existence through myths, songs, and dances. Her film captures how war and its aftermath can be transmitted as an illness upon successive generations. Also, the movie serves a means for discussion of what happened and a path for healing. In her work, Theidon (2006) is concerned with documenting the violence in the 1980-1990s in a historical context, while examining shifting moral codes that molded life before, during, and after the Peruvian armed conflict. This is done through tracing genealogy of mortality and the use of violence. Llosa has used the same format in constructing her movie in which the maternal link, Faustas mother details the past in her deathbed song; the uncle, who essentially wishes to move away from this era and focus on the future; and Fausta, trapped by a past that negatively impacts her present existence, which she must break through. Theidon (2001) gives voice to indigenous people in order to provide a perspective in how they have been affected by war in their homeland. In the same manner, Llosa has translated this voice into an inspired vision by interpreting aspects of Theidons book to film. Both Theidon and Llosa provide critical dialogue in addressing memory and oblivion in relation to political events during the Civil War that plagued Peru from 1980 to 1992. Theidons approach is more academic and relies of qualitative data, while Llosa takes a fictional, yet artistic approach in providing viewers with a perspective to trauma and liberation at the individual level for a young woman, as well as the social and collective implications of such experience (Lillo, 2011). In Milk of Sorrow, this past serves as hovering backdrop to the thoughts, attitudes, and actions of Fausta. Fausta and Feminism The main character Fausta remains a distant figure to family and daily functions with a sullen, detached presence throughout the film. With such a distant and different demeanor than the rest of the cast, Fausta actually stands out rather than recedes in the film. She sings in her native Quecha with passion and freedom, suggesting the person she will eventually become. Llosa has created a character that does not march into conflict, but through catastrophic events, such as the death of her mother and being

cheated in pay, manages to summon inner strength to prevail in these situations. In this sense, the director has created a complex character that outwardly does not project pronounced ideas of feminism. Perhaps feminism is less about women rising in force up against patriarchal structures and more related to them dealing with paternalistic issues on an individual basis that happen in their daily lives. Fausta has clearly demonstrated this through a quiet and unimposing manner. Fausta actually seems to gain strength and courage beyond her home environment as a worker for Aida and in developing a friendship with No. Symbolism The land and potatoes serve as important symbols throughout the film. After all, most conflicts throughout the history of Latin America have involved land ownership or lack of such opportunity. Also, issues related to agrarian and land reforms have plagued many revolutions within this region. Faustas family lives in the highlands of Peru, which have little greenery, yet Aida, lives in a small area, but has a gardener to tend to plants and flowers to keep the impression of a lush atmosphere. The potato, which is indigenous to the Andean region, has a symbolic role in that she uses it to protect her person, only in the end it makes her ill until it is removed. Also, she asks in the movie why no one grows potatoes, a root vegetable now associated with rural, not urban life (Montagne, 2011). Also, No provides her with a flowering potato plant in the end. The main characters names, such as Fausta, No, Perpetua, and Aida lend some allegorical and musical (operatic) elements to the film (Diestro-Dopido, 2010). Race, Gender and Class Issues of class standing, gender, and race are obvious throughout the film. The indigenous population of Peru obviously is depicted as poor and jovial. The upper class Europeans, as characterized by Aida, are haughty and do not view the indigenous Peruvians as equals. Aida demonstrates this through her treatment of the repairmen, No, and Fausta. In fact it seems that these people are there to be exploited by the affluent members of society. The men in the movie are portrayed as not being sympathetic to the needs of women and present themselves in an aggressive manner, especially in relation to forming relationships. The exception is No, who treats Fausta with the utmost kindness and compassion; however, he is depicted as the knight that saves the damsel in distress at the end. The majority of women seem concerned with feminine aspects of life, such as getting married and having families. Fausta stands out for seemingly having no interest or complete fear of everything and everyone around her. Cultural Conflict and Humor Again, the cultural conflict lies in the acceptance of Faustas condition and how such an issue prevents her from actualizing her individual identity. Ironically, it is against the backdrop of relationships with women (the death of her mother and being cheated by Aida) that Fausta begins the process of self-empowerment. Also, we see that Faustas uncle accepts her condition, known as la teta asustada, despite a doctor telling him that her illness is due to another cause that can be corrected. Her family

takes this as a forlorn condition based on past actions and does nothing to assist her. Yet, do not dwell on her problem and actually ignore her as they focus on their own lives and futures. Although this film is slow-paced, humor is evident throughout. This is shown is the level of elaborateness families with limited means attempt for weddings and other festive occasions. Fausta demonstrates humor in putting boys off when they try to approach her at her cousins wedding. Another interesting exchange takes place in which Fausta indicates to Aida when requested, that she is unable to sing her songs on cue and they are composed randomly, suggesting the use of cultural agency by Fausta. Aida states that she will pay her, but insists that she continues to make them up, but at the same time, sing the songs just like before. Seeing this as an opportunity to earn the money to bury her mother, Fausta agrees. Camera Work Natasha Braier, cinematographer for The Milk of Sorrow, frames the film as a journey from fear to freedom (Oppenheimer, 2010). By breaking Faustas image into fragments, Braier and Llosa are able to convey an unsteady and broken person. Upon Faustas entry to the unknown world of Aida home, the scale of the frame is closed and confined, but as she gains confidence, the space which surround Fausta become brighter and more expansive.

Works Cited Benamou, C., (1995). Notes toward a memography of Latin American womens cinema. Symposium, vol. 48, pp. 257-269. Diestro-Dopido, M., (2010). The milk of sorrow. Sight Sound, vol. 20(5), p. 80. Harris, B., (2010). Claudia Llosa, The milk of sorrow. Filmmaker, vol. 19(1), Retrieved from http://filmmakermagazine.com/12035-claudia-llosa-the-milk-of-sorrow/ Internet Movie Database (IDB) (2012). The milk of sorrow production information. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206488/ Lillo, G. (2011). La teta asustada (Per, 2009) de Claudia Llosa: memoria u olvido?. Revista de Critica Literaria Latinoamericana, 37(73), pp. 421-446. Llosa, C., (Director). (2009). The milk of sorrow (La teta asustada, original title). [Motion picture]. Peru: Olive Films. Murphy, A., (2011), Rise of indigenous actress marks change in Peru. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/06/24/137303097/rise-of-indigenousactress-marks-change-in-peru. Oppenheimer, J., (2010). An emotional transformation in Peru. American Cinematographer, 91(9), pp. 28-33. Theidon, K., (2001) Terrors talk: Fieldwork and war. Dialectical Anthropology, 26(1) pp. 9-35. Theidon, K., (2006). The mask and the mirror: facing up to the past in postwar Peru. Anthropologica, vol. 48, pp. 87-100.