# The Milk of Sorrow
**The Milk of Sorrow** (*La teta asustada*, 2009) is a Peruvian-Spanish drama film written and directed by Claudia Llosa, in which a young woman named Fausta carries a folk illness said to be transmitted through the breast milk of mothers raped during Peru's internal armed conflict. It was Llosa's second feature after *[Madeinusa](https://www.edgepedia.org/madeinusa)* (2006), and it won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 59th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) in 2009 before being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[1](https://www.screendaily.com/perus-the-milk-of-sorrow-wins-golden-bear-at-berlinale/4043315.article) • [2](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/90255/) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206488/awards/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / year | *La teta asustada* (The Milk of Sorrow), 2009, Peru and Spain[4](https://catalanfilms.cat/es/producciones/la-teta-asustada) |
| Director and writer | Claudia Llosa, born in Lima in 1976; her second feature after *Madeinusa* (2006)[1](https://www.screendaily.com/perus-the-milk-of-sorrow-wins-golden-bear-at-berlinale/4043315.article) • [5](https://www.festivaldecineglobal.org/drgff2009/peliculas_teta.asp) |
| Central premise | Fausta suffers "la teta asustada," an illness transmitted through the breast milk of women raped or mistreated during Peru's war on terrorism[6](https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3Aec199faa-5e31-4e6d-a1df-5813c8799e62/Largos2009-TaZ_opt72.pdf) |
| Lead performance | Magaly Solier as Fausta, who also appeared in Llosa's debut *Madeinusa*[7](https://theplaylist.net/review-milk-of-sorrow-intriguing-20100827/) |
| Top honors | Golden Bear and FIPRESCI Prize, 59th Berlinale, 2009, jury led by Tilda Swinton[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/90255/) |
| Oscar | Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, 2010 (Peru's submission)[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206488/awards/) • [8](https://www.audiovisual.pe/es/titulo/464/la-teta-asustada) |
| Language | Spanish and Quechua; over 40% of the dialogue is in Quechua[9](https://academic.oup.com/liverpool-scholarship-online/book/43422/chapter-abstract/363249181) |
| Critical aggregate | Metascore 68 (Generally Favorable): 8 positive, 2 mixed, 0 negative reviews[10](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-milk-of-sorrow/critic-reviews/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and central metaphor
The film opens with an elderly, dying woman singing in close-up about the atrocities she suffered during the guerrilla uprisings of the 1980s: she was brutally raped, her husband was murdered, and she was forced to eat his dead penis seasoned with gunpowder. She then dies.[11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/29/the-milk-of-sorrow-review) • [12](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-milk-of-sorrow/) The story then passes to her daughter Fausta (Magaly Solier), a timid young woman living on the poor outskirts of Lima who is terrified of violation and of walking alone.[13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-milk-of-sorrow)
Fausta's fear takes a physical form. She has inserted a potato into her vagina as a protective shield against rape, a secret revealed when her bleeding leads her uncle to tell a doctor that "it must have gotten in there by itself."[11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/29/the-milk-of-sorrow-review) Her symptoms are ascribed to the "milk of sorrow": trauma passed to children through the breast milk of their distressed mothers.[11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/29/the-milk-of-sorrow-review) In the film's own account, those infected are born without a soul, because the fright hid itself in the earth, and they carry an atavistic terror that isolates them from the world.[8](https://www.audiovisual.pe/es/titulo/464/la-teta-asustada) Fausta also suffers nosebleeds in moments of crisis or tension.[4](https://catalanfilms.cat/es/producciones/la-teta-asustada)
**The plot's movement.** Her mother's sudden death forces Fausta to confront her fears and her secret, and she needs money to bury her mother in her native village.[6](https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3Aec199faa-5e31-4e6d-a1df-5813c8799e62/Largos2009-TaZ_opt72.pdf) • [14](https://journals.iai.spk-berlin.de/index.php/iberoamericana/article/download/2378/1947/5000) She takes a job as a housemaid for the aristocratic pianist Aida (Susi Sánchez) and befriends the estate's Quechua-speaking gardener Noé (Efraín Solís).[15](https://www.sbs.com.au/whats-on/article/the-milk-of-sorrow-review/qskdi67oe) Aida promises Fausta the pearls needed to pay for the burial in exchange for help with her creative work, then recovers as an artist at Fausta's expense without giving her credit; Fausta steals the pearls that were promised to her.[14](https://journals.iai.spk-berlin.de/index.php/iberoamericana/article/download/2378/1947/5000) The infection caused by the potato intervenes, it is removed in a hospital, and Noé helps her heal. Fausta finally travels to the mountains with her mother's body, changes her plans, and buries her mother by the sea.[14](https://journals.iai.spk-berlin.de/index.php/iberoamericana/article/download/2378/1947/5000) The filmmakers describe the story as a journey from fear to freedom, a search for re-awakening.[6](https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3Aec199faa-5e31-4e6d-a1df-5813c8799e62/Largos2009-TaZ_opt72.pdf)
Song runs through the film. Fausta's mother sings her lament in Quechua on her deathbed, and Fausta herself composes and sings Quechua laments that only she hears, carrying them as personal patrimony through the spaces of the city.[14](https://journals.iai.spk-berlin.de/index.php/iberoamericana/article/download/2378/1947/5000) • [16](https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/public/documentos/institutorivaaguero/RIRA9-1_Completo.pdf) Large passages of the often silent film are sung, though not in the manner of a conventional musical.[15](https://www.sbs.com.au/whats-on/article/the-milk-of-sorrow-review/qskdi67oe)
## Origins: Theidon and the Peruvian conflict
The film's title condition is drawn from real ethnographic work. The medical anthropologist Kimberly Theidon, whose research on Peru's internal armed conflict and reconciliation politics appeared in *Entre prójimos: el conflicto armado interno y la política de la reconciliación en el Perú* (2004), described the belief in Ayacucho communities that fear, rage, and anguish pass from mother to child through breastfeeding. Theidon translated the Quechua expression *Mancharisqa Nuñu* as "la teta asustada."[17](https://doaj.org/article/a3ee0638eae7424281d29e891908493f) • [14](https://journals.iai.spk-berlin.de/index.php/iberoamericana/article/download/2378/1947/5000) Llosa interprets this notion freely, as fiction allows.[16](https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/public/documentos/institutorivaaguero/RIRA9-1_Completo.pdf)
The historical backdrop is Peru's internal armed conflict of 1980 to 2000. The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación), established in 2001, registered almost 70,000 murder cases as well as countless rapes, abductions, and other human rights abuses in that period.[18](https://www.berlinale.de/external/programme/archive/pdf/20090090.pdf) The film's victims are primarily poor Quechua-speaking women from the Andean region, many of reproductive age, whose bodies became bearers of extremely traumatic memories.[19](https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/36753/files/2025/03/Carolina-Rueda-Memory-Trauma-and-Phantasmagoria-in-Claudia-Llosas-La-teta-asustada.pdf)
## Production
The film is a co-production of Oberon Cinematográfica (Barcelona), Wanda Visión (Madrid), and Vela Producciones (Peru), with support from the Berlinale's World Cinema Fund, Ibermedia, ICEX-linked funds, and Peru's CONACINE.[4](https://catalanfilms.cat/es/producciones/la-teta-asustada) • [1](https://www.screendaily.com/perus-the-milk-of-sorrow-wins-golden-bear-at-berlinale/4043315.article) It was shot in Lima on 35 mm film in a 1:1.85 format, with cinematography by Natasha Braier, music by Selma Mutal, and editing by Frank Gutiérrez.[20](https://www.natashabraier.com/narrative/the-milk-of-sorrow) • [4](https://catalanfilms.cat/es/producciones/la-teta-asustada) International sales were handled by The Match Factory, and the film sold to distributors across Europe and Latin America.[4](https://catalanfilms.cat/es/producciones/la-teta-asustada)
## Awards
At the 59th Berlinale in February 2009, the international jury led by [Tilda Swinton](https://www.edgepedia.org/tilda-swinton) awarded the Golden Bear for Best Film to *The Milk of Sorrow* unanimously; it was the second year running that the prize went to a Latin American film, following *The Elite Squad*.[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/90255/) • [1](https://www.screendaily.com/perus-the-milk-of-sorrow-wins-golden-bear-at-berlinale/4043315.article) The film also took the FIPRESCI Prize in [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition), and Cineuropa noted it was the first Spanish title in 26 years to win the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear).[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/90255/) It was the first Peruvian movie ever to feature at the Berlinale.[21](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/feb/16/berlin-film-festival-2009)
Further prizes followed through 2009: Best Film and Best Actress (Magaly Solier) at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, where the film beat Javier Fesser's *Camino* among others; the Grand Coral (First Prize) and Best Art Direction at the Havana Film Festival; Best Film at the [Guadalajara](https://www.edgepedia.org/guadalajara), La Habana, Bogotá, and Gramado festivals; and acting awards for Solier at Lima and Montreal.[22](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20090328/teta-asustada-mejor-pelicula-iberoamericana-guadalajara/255186.shtml) • [23](https://lanuevaola.org/film/la-teta-asustada/) • [24](https://www.inmujeres.gob.es/areasTematicas/cultura/cine/docs/mujeresCine.pdf) Peru selected it as its candidate for the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and it received the nomination, losing to the Argentine film *[The Secret in Their Eyes](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-secret-in-their-eyes)*.[8](https://www.audiovisual.pe/es/titulo/464/la-teta-asustada) • [7](https://theplaylist.net/review-milk-of-sorrow-intriguing-20100827/) It was also nominated for the Goya for Best Spanish-Language Foreign Film and the Silver Ariel for Best Ibero-American Film.[25](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film725478.html) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206488/awards/)
## Critical reception
Critical response was generally favorable. On Metacritic the film scored 68 from ten reviews, eight positive and two mixed, with none negative.[10](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-milk-of-sorrow/critic-reviews/) Reviewers praised its imagery and Solier's performance: [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter) called it gorgeously shot with a plethora of haunting images, Variety noted that Llosa's second feature "perfectly aligns form and content," and the Los Angeles Times described Solier's performance as one of "ferocious but frustrating reserve."[10](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-milk-of-sorrow/critic-reviews/) The Guardian's Catherine Shoard called it subtle, funny, and wonderfully moving, more concerned with everyday objects and encounters than with gender politics.[11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/29/the-milk-of-sorrow-review) Dissenting views came from Time Out, which felt the anticipated transformation never arrives and the movie "feels strangled," and The New York Times, which found it constrained by a rarefied screenplay and a near-mute central performance.[10](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-milk-of-sorrow/critic-reviews/)
Reception in Peru was divided on political grounds. An article in *The Peruvian Times* claimed the film did for Peru and [Peruvians](https://www.edgepedia.org/peruvians) what [John Boorman](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-boorman)'s *Deliverance* did for the mountain people of the American interior, a comparison critics of the film have echoed in accusations that Llosa exoticizes [Indigenous peoples](https://www.edgepedia.org/indigenous-peoples) and traditions.[15](https://www.sbs.com.au/whats-on/article/the-milk-of-sorrow-review/qskdi67oe) • [26](https://www.ebsco.com/articles/social-sciences-and-humanities/58ce30ad-8f70-5072-a52a-aa4e0f504eec/whiteness-coloniality-and-distributive-justice-in-claudia-llosa-s-la-teta-asustada-2009/) Other scholars argue the film succeeds in representing the traumatic memory of victims of the internal armed conflict and offers a critique of Lima's persistent coloniality toward rural-to-urban migrants.[26](https://www.ebsco.com/articles/social-sciences-and-humanities/58ce30ad-8f70-5072-a52a-aa4e0f504eec/whiteness-coloniality-and-distributive-justice-in-claudia-llosa-s-la-teta-asustada-2009/)
## Themes in scholarship
[Academic writing](https://www.edgepedia.org/academic-writing) has treated the film as a study of intergenerational trauma rather than a conventional trauma narrative. Scholars connect Fausta's insertion of the potato to theories of the embodiment of trauma, reading the act as the body expressing post-traumatic emotion within Andean culture, where the potato carries rich symbolic meaning.[14](https://journals.iai.spk-berlin.de/index.php/iberoamericana/article/download/2378/1947/5000) The film is also read as a fable rather than realism: Fausta, a daughter of forced displacement living between her mother's narrated past and a modernizing Lima, moves from inherited trauma and fear of sexuality toward an acceptance of a migrant identity, culminating in the symbolic offering at the sea.[16](https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/public/documentos/institutorivaaguero/RIRA9-1_Completo.pdf) Its use of Quechua, at over 40% of the dialogue, has been described as re-locating national culture and redefining the Peruvian national subject around an urban indigenous culture.[9](https://academic.oup.com/liverpool-scholarship-online/book/43422/chapter-abstract/363249181)
## References
1. [Peru's The Milk Of Sorrow wins Golden Bear at Berlinale, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/perus-the-milk-of-sorrow-wins-golden-bear-at-berlinale/4043315.article)
2. [Llosa scoops Golden Bear and Europe dominates prize list, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/90255/)
3. [The Milk of Sorrow (2009) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206488/awards/)
4. [La teta asustada, Catalan Films database](https://catalanfilms.cat/es/producciones/la-teta-asustada)
5. [III Festival de Cine Global Dominicano 2009 – La teta asustada](https://www.festivaldecineglobal.org/drgff2009/peliculas_teta.asp)
6. [LA TETA ASUSTADA, Ministerio de Cultura de España (film sheet)](https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3Aec199faa-5e31-4e6d-a1df-5813c8799e62/Largos2009-TaZ_opt72.pdf)
7. [Review: 'The Milk Of Sorrow' An Intriguing & Pleasant Surprise, The Playlist](https://theplaylist.net/review-milk-of-sorrow-intriguing-20100827/)
8. [La teta asustada, audiovisual.pe – Guía del audiovisual peruano](https://www.audiovisual.pe/es/titulo/464/la-teta-asustada)
9. [Transitional Justice and Reconciliation through Identification: Paloma de papel and La teta asustada, Liverpool Scholarship Online](https://academic.oup.com/liverpool-scholarship-online/book/43422/chapter-abstract/363249181)
10. [The Milk of Sorrow critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-milk-of-sorrow/critic-reviews/)
11. [The Milk of Sorrow – review, The Guardian (Catherine Shoard, 29 April 2010)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/29/the-milk-of-sorrow-review)
12. [Review: The Milk of Sorrow, Slant Magazine (Andrew Schenker, 23 March 2009)](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-milk-of-sorrow/)
13. [The Milk of Sorrow, Time Out (Joshua Rothkopf, 23 August 2010)](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-milk-of-sorrow)
14. [Trauma y aislamiento en La teta asustada de Claudia Llosa, Enrique Bernales Albites and Leila Gómez, Iberoamericana XVII, 65 (2017)](https://journals.iai.spk-berlin.de/index.php/iberoamericana/article/download/2378/1947/5000)
15. [The Milk of Sorrow Review, SBS What's On (Simon Foster, 7 May 2010)](https://www.sbs.com.au/whats-on/article/the-milk-of-sorrow-review/qskdi67oe)
16. [El conflicto armado interno en el cine peruano, Revista Iberoamericana / PUCP](https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/public/documentos/institutorivaaguero/RIRA9-1_Completo.pdf)
17. [La teta asustada: de Theidon a Llosa, DOAJ](https://doaj.org/article/a3ee0638eae7424281d29e891908493f)
18. [Berlinale 2009 programme archive – La teta asustada](https://www.berlinale.de/external/programme/archive/pdf/20090090.pdf)
19. [Memory, Trauma, and Phantasmagoria in Claudia Llosa's La teta asustada, Carolina Rueda](https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/36753/files/2025/03/Carolina-Rueda-Memory-Trauma-and-Phantasmagoria-in-Claudia-Llosas-La-teta-asustada.pdf)
20. [Natasha Braier, Director of Photography – The Milk of Sorrow](https://www.natashabraier.com/narrative/the-milk-of-sorrow)
21. [Peruvian drama takes top prize at Berlin film festival, The Guardian (Ben Child, 16 February 2009)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/feb/16/berlin-film-festival-2009)
22. [La teta asustada, mejor película iberoamericana en Guadalajara, RTVE.es (28 March 2009)](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20090328/teta-asustada-mejor-pelicula-iberoamericana-guadalajara/255186.shtml)
23. [La teta asustada – La Nueva Ola (award list)](https://lanuevaola.org/film/la-teta-asustada/)
24. [LA TETA ASUSTADA (2009), Instituto de la Mujer, Ministerio de Cultura de España](https://www.inmujeres.gob.es/areasTematicas/cultura/cine/docs/mujeresCine.pdf)
25. [La teta asustada (2009), FilmAffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film725478.html)
26. [Whiteness, Coloniality and Distributive Justice in Claudia Llosa's La teta asustada (2009), Hispanic Review via EBSCO](https://www.ebsco.com/articles/social-sciences-and-humanities/58ce30ad-8f70-5072-a52a-aa4e0f504eec/whiteness-coloniality-and-distributive-justice-in-claudia-llosa-s-la-teta-asustada-2009/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2006 to 2009*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license