The Milk of Sorrow

(LA TETA ASUSTADA)

Peru's controversial bid for this year's best foreign-language Oscar is a beautifully tender story, filled with touches of magical realism.

This exquisitely original allegory details the lingering trauma from the decades-long conflict in Peru that was passed on through la teta austada-milk of sorrow-to women including the beautiful, enigmatically silent Fausta (Solier).

Fausta is the product of a rape inflicted on her mother during two decades of rebel violence. After her mother's death, Fausta is determined to bury her in her native village but in order to do so must confront the malaise that afflicts her like a sickness.

Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival.