The Milk of Sorrow / La teta asustada / Молоко печали (2009)

La Teta Asustada (English: The Milk of Sorrow, literally "The Frightened Teat") is a 2009 film by Peruvian director Claudia Llosa and co-produced by Peru and Spain. The film stars Magaly Solier, and addresses the fears of abused women during Peru's recent history. It won the 2009 Golden Bear award and FIPRESCI prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, as well as the award for best movie in the 24 Festival Internacional de Cine de Guadalajara in Mexico. It was nominated for the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Picture.
Between 1980 and 1992 Peru experienced a period of very hard violence, particularly in the Andean region, because of the uprising of the Maoist group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the actions of the paramilitary and state armed forces. By 1990 the conflict finally reached Lima, the capital city of Peru. Claudia Llosa refers in her film to the folk belief that the trauma experienced by women who were raped by members of security force was passed on to their children through the milk from their breasts. Thus, this period of violence continues to affect not only those who experienced it, but also the next generation.
The film is based on the book Entre Prójimos by Kimberly Theidon, Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University and Director of Praxis, Institute for Social Justice. Llosa's work is a psychological as well as sociological approach to the 12 years of conflict, and is critical of the mass rapes allegedly used by the army as a strategy of war. In her book, Theidon documents a number of testimonies from women who were raped by as many as thirty men at a time, atrocities that often resulted in pregnancies. Theidon states that "when survivors of sexual violence speak about their experiences, they place a responsibility on their listeners to respond to what they have heard." Llosa's film, too, is an attempt to respond to such testimonies.