“Plants aren't like people. They tell the true” - Fausta

The milk of sorrow / La teta asustada ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ

A peruvian movie from 2009 by Claudia Llosa.
This wonderful movie is fulfilled with several emotions as the scenes are presented. The plot invites us to understand how rape cases that occurred during Peru´s internal conflict in the 80´s, mainly caused by the terrorist movement Sendero Luminoso, inflicted in several women a fear-based life against men. Also, the movie title is a metaphor related to this fear being transmitted by breast milk from the mothers that lived that traumatic episodes to their daughters and upcoming generations.

The movie starts with the mother of Fausta (who was raped and gave birth to our main character in the movie) on her deathbed. Fausta decided to keep her mothers corpse until she have enough money to buy a proper coffin and give her a decent burial. Due to this situation she is seen in need to get a job as soon as possible. Specially because Fausta´s uncle, Lúcido, wants to bury the corpse on his backyard because the odor is intolerable and it´s beginning to rotten.

During Peru´s internal conflict and terrorism time, woman used to introduce a potato root into their vagina to avoid being raped by man.(ง︡'-'︠)ง

Fausta gets a job as a maid into a wealthy family, where she faces cultural challenges and differences between social stratums as she is a woman with Andean roots living in the capital. She also is confronted with the fear against men she inherited from her mom , this is evidenced in her relationship with the gardener or the constant state of alert towards any other men working at the house.

Fausta's sickness

During the film Fausta started to feel sick and eventually she ended up fainting. For this reason she goes to see a doctor, accompanied by her uncle, and he tells her that she is sick with "Mancharisqa Nuñu" (Quechua for “frightened” and “breast or milk”) a reference to the fear was traspassed to her through her mother's milk.

The doctor also noticed; Fausta have symptoms of an infection and recommend doing a complete examination on her. He finds out Fausta has a potato inside her vagina (the main cause for the infection) and the roots had grow so much that they´re causing internal wounds.

Despise the doctor telling her it´s crucial to take out the potato she absolutely rejects this as it's the only way she feels safe and protected.

I totally encourage to see this movie if you feel you can deal with these topics. (ㆆ_ㆆ)

(It's not that explicit as you think)

In my opinion as a film student, shots are amazing and the color pallete combines really well with the story telling because it introduces the audience into other realities that exist and sometimes we overlook or just ignore. The way this movie presents so controversial and sensitive subjects it´s well balanced with metaphors and really direct messages reflecting both sides of a chaotic and multicultural society as Lima.（ つ︣﹏╰）

This is a total 10/10 for me and deserve all the awards that had earned. I'm not a specialist on the subject but I love movies and want to share my opinion with you guys so hope you give it a try.

Link to watch it on spanish:

Link to watch it on English : https://ok.ru/video/1702136515270

This movie got to me as a suggestion of my partner. (ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ ♥

Edited by: Sagar P. ᕙ(`▿´)ᕗ