The Milk of Sorrow (2009)
Movie · 2009 · Drama · 1h 34m · Spanish
Curator score: 6.0/10 (16.7K ratings)
Overview
Fausta is suffering from a rare disease called the Milk of Sorrow, which is transmitted through the breast milk of pregnant women who were abused or raped during or soon after pregnancy. While living in constant fear and confusion due to this disease, she must face the sudden death of her mother. She chooses to take drastic measures to not follow in her mother's footsteps.
Ratings
- Curator score: 6.0/10
- IMDb: 6.7/10
- Letterboxd: 3.70/5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 78%
- Metacritic: 68
- TMDB: 6.3/10
Director
Claudia Llosa
Production
Paris Film Production
Cast
Magaly Solier, Susi Sánchez, Efraín Solís, Marino Ballón, Daniel Nuñez Duran
Curator Review
Verdict
A haunting, politically charged drama that turns trauma into a quiet but forceful character study. Its blend of folklore, social memory, and bodily fear makes it memorable even when its symbolism is deliberately opaque.
Best for
- viewers drawn to art-house dramas about trauma and memory
- fans of politically engaged Latin American cinema
- people who appreciate poetic, symbolic storytelling
- audiences interested in women-centered narratives about inherited fear
Skip if
- you prefer straightforward plotting and clear exposition
- you are sensitive to sexual violence and its aftermath
- you want an emotionally light or uplifting drama
- you dislike allegorical or highly stylized realism
Overview
The Milk of Sorrow is an austere, unsettling drama that treats trauma as something inherited, embodied, and socially enforced. Rather than explaining itself in conventional terms, it moves through ritual, song, silence, and the daily mechanics of fear, creating a world where the past is never past.
Worth noting
What lingers most is its sense of lived history: the film connects intimate suffering to broader structures of colonialism, class, and wartime violence without reducing its heroine to a symbol. Fausta’s guardedness can feel difficult at first, but the film earns that distance by showing how fear becomes a survival strategy.
Bottom line
This is not an easy watch, and it is not meant to be. But for viewers open to poetic realism and political melancholy, it offers a rare combination of formal restraint and emotional force.
Top Letterboxd reviews
𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐚 (3★) · 373 likes
i'm sorry but "if red is the color of your passion, then let me bathe in your menstruation" is peak writing
Jorge Ortega (4★) · 290 likes
Everyone including me likes being right about something, but when it comes to films I love being wrong about to something exceeding my expectations and this was one of those cases. For anyone who isn't Peruvian let me go ahead and say that this is a very delicate subject even recently, as the terrorism era that hit Peru and the war against it that covered the country for over 10 years of conflict is still talked about and discussed with… more
dselwyns (4.5★) · 255 likes
the nature of rape as the expected for so many women, and the inescapable nature of colonialist violence and cyclical patriarchal abuse
Santa Rosa de Lima (5★) · 124 likes
esta probablemente siempre sera mi pelicula favorita, aunque; debo admitir que era muy joven para entenderla cuando la vi. Osea tenia 15 años, y en el sentido "literal" la entendi en su totalidad, pero hay muchas emociones que no entendia en ese momento y que podria entender ahora, y otras que probablemente nunca entendere. Sin embargo, esta pelicula es brillante, desde cinematografia a guion y tema; me duele lo mucho que es ignorada actualmente en el cine peruano, pq en… more esta probablemente siempre sera mi pelicula favorita, aunque; debo admitir que era muy joven para entenderla cuando la vi. Osea tenia 15 años, y en el sentido "literal" la entendi en su totalidad, pero hay muchas emociones que no entendia en ese momento y que podria entender ahora, y otras que probablemente nunca entendere. Sin embargo, esta pelicula es brillante, desde cinematografia a guion y tema; me duele lo mucho que es ignorada actualmente en el cine peruano, pq en… more
myheartsweet (5★) · 117 likes
—¡No tengo miedo porque quiero!—Solo la muerte es obligatoria, el resto es porque queremos— ¿Y cuando te matan y violan?¿Eso es obligatorio? this film is e v e r y t h i n g I don’t know if some day I will be able to review this, I’m mortified and speechless una joya peruana ✨❤️
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Topics
art-house drama, poetic realism, trauma, women's experience, political violence, Andean culture, memory, grief, folklore, slow-burn