The Milk of Sorrow

The panoramic, prize-winning story of a village girl adrift in Peru's capital city

by Demetrios MatheouWednesday, 28 April 2010

Sphinx-like: Magaly Solier as a Peruvian village girl in 'The Milk of Sorrow'

The Peruvian Claudia Llosa's debut, Madeinusa, took place in a remote Andean village, whose religiously fervent inhabitants had an unusual spin on the festivities: during their tiempo santo, God was deemed dead, and all could sin with impunity before Easter Sunday. Unhappily, one girl's loathsome father intended to use this "free pass" to take her virginity. A village girl tormented by superstition is also at the heart of Llosa's sophomore film, The Milk of Sorrow, but this time she's struggling in the capital, Lima. Thus the writer-director broadens her gaze, while demonstrating that her impressive first film was no flash in the pan.

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