The film begins with a song sung by an elderly woman who lies dying in her bed. She describes her own rape and the death of her husband. At the end of the song, she slowly passes away while lying next to her daughter, Fausta. It is assumed that Fausta has grown up on stories of the horrors that occurred during the conflict between Sendero Luminoso, a leftwing guerrilla group, and the Peruvian government. This has left Fausta with a crippling fear of men and rape. To dissuade any attempts of rape, she has placed a potato in her vagina. Throughout the film, this potato begins to impact her health yet she continues to refuse to allow the doctors to remove it. In the aftermath of her mother's death Fausta and her family do not have enough money to take her mother's body back to their village for burial. Fausta takes work in the home of a wealthy pianist, Aída who is struggling to complete a new piece in time for an upcoming recital. When the pianist discovers that Fausta has a knack for writing her own songs, Aída encourages her to complete a song for her by offering a string of pearls in exchange. Fausta desperately needs this money in order to pay for her mother's funeral and agrees. The night of the recital, Aída performs Fausta's song to a roaring applause. On the way back to Aida's home after the recital, Fausta comments about the positive reception that the song received. Aída is afraid Fausta will say something that will let the driver know Aida is not the composer and responds by kicking Fausta out into the dark streets of Lima by herself. The night after her cousin's wedding, Fausta's uncle comes into her room and frightens her while she sleeps. He begs her to live her life and not waste her days in a state of never-ending fear like her mother did. At the end of the film, Fausta decides to go through with the operation to get the potato removed and buries her mother near the ocean. It is implied that Fausta will move on with her life, leaving her fears behind her.
Background
Between 1980 and 1992 Peru experienced a period of extreme violence, particularly in the Andean region, because of the uprising of the Maoist group Sendero Luminoso and the actions of the paramilitary and state armed forces. By 1990 the conflict had reached Lima, the capital city of Peru. Claudia Llosa refers in her film to the folk belief that the trauma experienced by women who were raped by members of security force was passed on to their children through their breast milk. Thus, this period of violence continues to affect not only those who experienced it but also the next generation. Llosa's work is a psychological as well as sociological approach to the 12 years of conflict, and is critical of the mass rapes used by the army as a strategy of war. The film is based on the book Entre Prójimos, by Kimberly Theidon. In her book, Theidon documents a number of testimonials by women who were raped by as many as thirty men at a time, atrocities that often resulted in pregnancies. Theidon states that "when survivors of sexual violence speak about their experiences, they place a responsibility on their listeners to respond to what they have heard." Llosa's film, too, is an attempt to respond to such testimonies.
Filming
Most of the filming locations are in Manchay, an impoverished suburban area in Pachacamac, southeast of Lima, which indigenous people took over during the 1980s to escape from terrorism, and near a high-class area of Lima called Cieneguilla.
Critical reception
The film received positive reviews, having an 80% certified "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes and a critical consensus:"Claudia Llosa's deliberate pace and abstract storytelling may frustrate some viewers, but there's no denying the visual pleasures soaking in The Milk of Sorrow". Peter Brunette, from The Hollywood Reporter, said "The film is gorgeously shot and contains a plethora of haunting images". Boyd van Hoeij from Variety said that "Peruvian realities and Llosa's light magical realism mesh to create a vivid picture of a society and its problems." While some Peruvian critics gave the movie negative reviews, the plot and the performances were praised by American and European critics.
