Fausta

Claudia Llosa writes a peculiar, but captivating story of a young Peruvian girl living in a constant world of fear on the outskirts of Lima. Fausta is believed to be suffering from a rare disease, "La teta asustada," or the "Milk of Sorrow," which was transmitted from her mother's breast milk after she was raped by terrorists during the time of Sendero Luminoso. Facing her mother's death, Fausta is forced to overcome her fear and work in the Big House of a limeña musician. While both the music and filming are stunning, I feel that the film lacks much action or thick plot. I found it to be more of a journey, one that led Fausta from her fear to a glimpse of her freedom. Furthermore, as a viewer who has lived in Peru, the film was very nostalgic for me and I felt that it portrayed Lima and the "pueblos" with a profound sincerity.

If you are looking for a poetic and beautiful journey of a story, this film is exactly that.

A realistic portrayal of the impoverished suburbia of Lima, Peru is the frame-set for this fantastic story. Fausta, daughter of a woman raped by terrorists some 25 years ago, assists her mother's death and decides to take her remains back to her hometown, in the high Andes. But, apart from having to work hard to collect the money she needs for it, Fausta has a reason, deep inside, that prevents her from enjoying life or accepting her outstanding physical beauty as a normal girl.

Mastery at low-budget cinematic skill should be credited to Bollywood (the Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry) films, which may not be the most groundbreaking in technical or screen writing terms, but contain music in the form of song-and-dance numbers woven into the script in order to appeal to all segments of the audience and maximise box office receipts. Since Hollywood's multi-million budgets would never have helped shoot realistic and colourful, but rough Brazilian imagery, 'Central Station' (1998) and 'Cidade de Deus' (2002) garnered indisputable acclaim at renowned film festivals after being funded on their own. The example set by off-Hollywood movie makers' efforts have become heroic in countries where movie industry budgets are, to say the least, scarce.

This is the case for LTA. It could have been more on par to Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' if it wasn't for the Peruvian-Spanish meagre budget available to Peruvian young director Claudia Llosa. If you expect to see acting beaus or beautés, famous screenwriters and crew, expensive car explosions or CGI, go elsewhere. LTA is neat magic-realism, a territory where people may be poor but not disgusting, where their houses are mere recreation centres for fantasy and everyday life to play happily together. Only time will tell if the trend keeps up, spreads globally, and ends up being called Globbywood.

This is a well-told tale of hope where only two professional actors are involved. And this was as clear to Berlinale judges as it is for the general public -those with a thirst for veritable, honest, witty craftsmanship at film-making.

Our heroine is called Fausta, a girl who is full of fear. "The Milk of Sorrow" or, more exactly "The Frightened Tit" is, in the Peruvian-indigenous tradition, an illness, is being condemned to be a coward. Peru's late History was influenced by guerrilla's warfare and state brutality. Women (like Fausta's mother) were raped, and raped women got sick... of fear. through her mother's milk Fausta is afraid of life, but she is by no mean a coward, because after her mother dies, her struggle is by herself. This movie is beautiful, it combines a very, very strong performance from Magaly Solier, and a universal human struggle in a very typical Latin American city.

I was so touched by this film, which is obviously a low budget production. It proves that you do not need a multi-billion budget to make a good movie. I think only women can understand fully the pain and the fear the heroine had to go through. I wonder if they produce a sound track for the movie. The songs by the heroine and that sonata adopted by the pianist were beautiful. Solier is a great actress and her facial features, well, what can I say, is not the kind of glamour you find on screens. She has character, reflecting her heritage. I immediately take a liking of her from the first few scenes.I It is disturbing to find people snubbing such a beautiful movie but I guess everyone to his/her tase.

I can see that or why many people will like this movie. There is the very great portrayal of the main actress, there is running theme in here that speaks to many art-house fans (even those who may not know that they are).

The pacing might seem awkward, some twists in the story line and/or character arc, might not be accessible to some viewers, but all those things make the movie even better. At least that's how I see it. Still as this is a movie that provokes or encourages you to think a lot, there might come up a few questions, story-wise and or character-wise that might leave you with a slightly bad taste.

And although up until now the review the user GeneralGrievous gave hasn't received positive feedback, you have to cut the guy some slack. If you read his review, you can understand why he didn't like the movie quite as much. I thought his review was helpful, even though I don't agree on everything he writes, because he explains not only why he thinks that way, but he gives a few glimpses into his knowledge of Peruvian film-making.