Film Reviews

The Milk of Sorrow

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• Details: Spain/Peru / 95mins (TBC).

Subtlety is always a tone a serious filmmaker should strive for but The Milk Of Sorrow's surreal idea is played out so faintly that it's almost dead. Interest wanes very quickly in this metaphorical Peruvian drama.
Fausta (Solier) suffers from The Milk Of Sorrow, an 'illness' transmitted to the victim via the mother's breast milk if the mother has been raped or sexually abused. Fausta's mother was raped and forced to commit unspeakable acts during the brutal Shining Path campaign in the early eighties and because of this superstition Fausta has had an odd upbringing; her mother inserted a potato into her vagina when she was a child so the same fate won't befall her daughter. Fausta has grown up to be an awkward woman, forever conscious that a potato is stuck between her legs (and that she has to trim the roots when they become visible). Fausta isdetermined to return her dead mother to her village for her burial but can't afford the trip; securing a housekeeping job in town, Fausta becomes attracted to the gentle gardener Noe (Solís).
There's not a lot to recommend here – those looking for a history lesson regarding The Shining Path and the massacres they carried out against the very peasants they swore to defend will be disappointed, as will those looking for a coherent story. Research of Peruvian history is needed before watching this but even knowing everything we're supposed to know, The Milk Of Sorrow is so deathly slow boredom is never far away. Doing her very best to carry the nothing plot is an interesting Solier: she's perfect as the awkward Fausta: her hands forever clasped near her groin, she is deliberate and unsure in her movements.
Despite the tragedy behind the story, Claudia Llosa finds humour in The Milk Of Sorrow. The opening scene, where Fausta's mother recounts her horrible experiences in song, have a twang of humour about it. When Fausta's uncle is told by a doctor of the potato, he shrugs, "It must have got in there by itself – there's a lot of food at home." Dotted throughout the plot is a series of tacky weddings. These comic moments don't sit right with the tone of the film, however.

Review by Gavin Burke