AFI FEST Los Angeles International Film Festival 2009

Winner of the Golden Bear for best film at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival, this exquisitely original allegory details the lingering trauma from the decades-long conflict in Peru that was passed on through la teta austada—milk of sorrow—to women including the beautiful, enigmatically silent Fausta (Magaly Solier). The film begins with a sublime, fable-like scene: Fausta’s peasant mother is singing a mournful song about horrible violence suffered at the hands of terrorists. A moment later, she passes away. We follow Fausta’s awkward attempt to bury her mother and then we witness, through subtle magical realism, how she heeds the advice of her mother’s neighbors and inserts a potato in her vagina to protect herself against future violations. In the hands of lesser talents, this might be grim stuff, but Peruvian director Claudia Llosa (MADEINUSA) balances grave subject matter with an elegant lyricism and unexpected bursts of comedy.

–Rose Kuo