by AlishaThe Academy Award nominations came out earlier this week and for the first time a Peruvian film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. La Teta Asustada or The Milk of Sorrow in English is the second film by writer/director Claudia Llosa. The movie follows Fausta, beautifully portrayed by the Peruvian actress Magaly Solier, who is suffering from the "Milk of Sorrow" disease. A disease popularly beleived to be passed from mothers who were raped or abused during their pregnancies to their children. The movie captures the blending of coastal and mountain culture that is occurring in the capital city of Lima. In the capital these cultural changes have come about as the population has grown largely in part due to the migration of people from the mountainous regions to the coast following a period of civil war that Peru faced in the 1980's.
La Teta Asustada is a beautiful film that mixes the modernity of city life with traditional Andean beliefs. I would highly recommend this film as well as Claudia Llosa's first film Madinusa.
We will be keeping our fingers crossed for a win come Oscar night!
