ND/NF. "The Milk of Sorrow"

By David Hudson on 03/30/2009

"The legacy of sexualized violence is the chief generational inheritance in Claudia Llosa's incisive, carefully observed Golden Bear-winner 'The Milk of Sorrow,' the attendant fear transmitted - quite literally per the folk custom that becomes the film's central metaphorical conceit - through a mother's milk." Andrew Schenker in Slant: "As potentially sensational as the film's subject matter may be, Llosa treats the material with an appropriate restraint, employing medium and long shots to hold the action at a coolly observational distance - a strategy perfectly in keeping with her lead character's reserve - and leaving all lurid details pointedly off screen."

"[T]he film's most interesting aspect is its roaming, evocative exploration of Lima's shantytowns and marketplaces," finds the New York Times' AO Scott.

"Suggesting some sort of weird re-imagining of Todd Haynes's 'Safe' set amidst an altogether more troubled milieu, 'The Milk of Sorrow' will get under your skin," promises Brandon Harris at the SpoutBlog. "A potent and unforgettable film, 'The Milk of Sorrow' is a little a hard to enjoy and might be accused of being obtuse, but you've never seen anything else like it."

"Llosa was as astonished as anyone to be handed the Golden Bear, but she does have a track record: her 2006 debut film, 'Madeinusa,' did well at the Sundance and Rotterdam festivals, and she has the added advantage that her uncle is novelist Mario Vargas Llosa," wrote Clare Gaunt last month in the Guardian when she met the director in Berlin. "One of the most refreshing aspects of her style is a kind of comedy that may be new to Europeans, but is entirely characteristic of Peru. It's not black or tragicomic; it's the funny and the heartbreaking juxtaposed."

More reviews from Berlin: Peter Brunette (Hollywood Reporter), Lee Marshall (Screen) and Boyd van Hoeij (Variety).

Wednesday and Friday. For more on this year's New Directors / New Films, click the tag: ND/NF 2009.

[Photo: "The Milk of Sorrow," Vela Producciones, 2009]

Tags: Claudia Llosa, ND/NF 2009, The Milk of Sorrow