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The Milk of Sorrow (2008)
Director: Claudia Llosa
Movie review
From Time Out London
The terrorisation of Peruvian women during the Shining Path campaigns of the 1980s is the troubling background to Peruvian director Claudia Llosa’s frank, free-floating drama about the power of folk myth on young minds. As a dying woman sings of being gang raped and forced to eat the severed penis of her dead lover, we learn that her chronically demure daughter Fausta (Magaly Solier) has a potato lodged in her vagina as a crude form of contraception. Influenced by traditional songs and rituals, Faustina is repulsed by men, and the film tells of a gradual relaxing of sexual tensions within her as she attempts to bankroll her late mother’s funeral by working for a neurotic female composer. Concentrating on the implications of honouring family tradition as well as the occasional hokiness of those same traditions, Llosa sensitively captures the deep-rooted poetry of this system of beliefs while allowing us the space to assess its cultural and spiritual merits.Author: David Jenkins
Time Out London Issue 2070: April 22-28, 2010
User reviews of this film
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- Alexander Ballington said...
- Posted on Dec 19 2009 18:04 Amazing soundtrack by Selma Mutal. The Milk of Sorrow is a beautiful film!!!
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Cast & crew
Director: Claudia Llosa
Cast: Magaly Solier, Susi Sanchez, Efrain Solis full cast
Genre(s): Drama
Rated: 15
Duration: 100 mins
UK Release: Apr 30 2010
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