Psychoanalytic analysis of the film La teta asustada (The Milk of Sorrow).
This film, directed by Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa, tells the complex story of Fausta, a young woman born during the armed conflicts in Lima, Peru, whose mother has recently passed away.
Fausta’s mother, Perpetua (from the Latin perpetuus—"eternal, constant, unchanging"), was a victim of violence; her father was killed, and she, still in her mother’s womb at the time, "witnessed it all."
One of the last words on her mother’s lips were lyrics to a song that she, like Fausta later, improvised on the spot: "Perhaps one day you’ll understand / How I wept, how I begged on my knees / That night, amid the barking of dogs and the laughter of men, / I screamed in their faces despite the pain: / You must not have been born a woman, / But a rabid dog, for you tore her apart / As you’ll tear me apart now… That night, the woman singing to you now / Was seized by scoundrels. They seized me and violated me, / Showing no mercy to my unborn daughter. / They showed no mercy, nor did they feel shame / That she could see them from my womb. / They seized her and raped her, and then, as if that weren’t enough, / They stuffed my dead husband José’s penis into my mouth / And forced me to swallow it. Grief made me scream, / Begging them to kill me and bury me with my José… / I no longer wished to live in this world."
The song flows like milk, and the daughter absorbs it into herself, carrying an unlivable sorrow through her entire life.
Fausta (her name derived from the Latin faustus, meaning "happy," "lucky," "favorable," "benevolent") flees to her uncle after her mother’s death and, upon seeing wedding preparations, faints.
In the hospital, it is revealed that she has suffered from nosebleeds and fainting spells since childhood—these episodes typically occur when she is afraid.
Doctors discover a potato tuber in the protagonist’s vagina, its sprouts protruding outward.
Fausta refuses to part with it despite the doctors’ insistence that the potato is causing her fainting spells, threatening her health, and potentially her life. Moreover, she doesn’t even feel it inside her body, and it doesn’t bother her.
Her uncle seems unfazed and pays no attention to this fact, justifying his niece’s condition with the illness she was born with: "Her mother infected her with fear through her milk. People like her are said to be nourished by the milk of sorrow, and their souls, from fear, hide in the earth."
This family or even cultural legend, which Fausta must have known, could not help but influence her.
Her body is earth, a dead body; the potato is both her soul and her parents, who died and were buried within her, yet still not lost to her.
Fausta justifies keeping the potato inside her, calling it a means of protection against rape: "Better this than anything else… My mother told me that during the terrorism era, a neighbor did the same to avoid being raped. They say it was disgusting, but to me, she was smarter than the others."
Though one might assume this is not its only function—more on that later.
The beliefs of her relatives and neighbors about the illness Fausta inherited from her mother are vividly apparent. When washing her mother’s corpse, they fear touching her breasts and ask Fausta to rub them with oil, lest they too become infected by this sorrow.
But her mother is not buried—Fausta has no money, and her uncle refuses to give her any, despite his eagerness to be rid of the situation and his threats to bury Perpetua under the house.
The deceased remains in Fausta’s home, in her bed as before. She strokes her hair, lies beside her under the same sheet, deeply concerned about preserving her body. She is even willing to work as a maid in "the house upstairs"—despite her reclusiveness and anxiety—just to earn enough for a coffin and to transport her dead mother to her native village.
She works in "the house upstairs," for Señora Aida (the name Aida has Arabic origins, meaning "guest," "one who returns," as well as "benefit," "profit," "reward." In the Yoruba language, the element Adé in names means "royal authority." Drawing a parallel with Hades, the god of the underworld, another interpretation of the name could be "gloomy," "revered," or "mysterious"), a woman of high society, phallic and domineering.
At their first meeting, the mistress of the house is busy drilling a hole for a nail and hanging a new painting on the wall.
She asks Fausta to hold the drill and hand her the painting. Fausta notices a portrait of a man in a military uniform and feels nauseous, after which she begins to bleed from the nose.
The overabundance of images related to penetration, combined with the phallic symbols and the photo of a soldier—possibly involved in the past armed conflict in Lima—undoubtedly triggers her painful complexes and causes unbearable anxiety, manifesting in symptoms.
The protagonist invents an original way to cope with her unbearable feelings: she sings, "Let’s sing, let’s sing beautiful songs / To hide our fear. Let’s pretend everything is fine…" These songs are very similar to those her late mother sang, suggesting Fausta’s identification with her mother.
But singing is not enough to ease her anxiety. She trims the sprouts of the potato inside her vagina—an act that seems inevitably linked to castration.
In the film, death is starkly contrasted with life. Funeral preparations are repeatedly interspersed with wedding festivities. In a dug pit, resembling a grave, a children’s pool is made; instead of the deceased Perpetua, a wedding dress is laid on her bed, and so on.
The film frequently features scenes reminiscent of a mother’s womb with a dead child buried alive, or a child who somehow survived—the earth never fully consuming it.
Fausta’s encounters with this symbolism force her to seek an answer to the question: "Am I alive or dead?"
Another symbol that stood out to me is the pearl. It personifies the female genitalia, innocence, and femininity in general. Additionally, given its origin, it can be seen as a fruit, a child, and a gift.
Interestingly, the mistress of "the house upstairs" occasionally calls the protagonist Isidora, another name for her that directly relates to the Egyptian goddess of fertility and translates to "gift of Isis."
Aida strikes a deal with Fausta: she will sing songs, and in return, the lady will give her pearls.
What is undoubtedly beneficial for the mistress of the house—she wants to compose music for an upcoming concert—is something entirely new for Fausta, who is only beginning to learn about the world that has thus far brought her only pain. This gesture, though not without caution, instills hope in the protagonist—not only in the possibility of new relationships with others but also in reclaiming her femininity and vitality.
Fausta’s encounter with the local gardener, Noé (the name Noé means "comforting," "soothing," "peaceful," "peacemaking" in ancient Hebrew), is significant. He escorts her home, earning her trust. Their conversations stand in stark contrast to Aida’s coldness, her uncle’s detachment, and the threats posed by other men. He helps her nurture herself, much like he tends to a flower by trimming wilted leaves and loosening the soil so it can breathe and direct its energy toward its living parts.
The paternal figure of Noé initiates the process of symbolization and helps trigger the work of melancholia, which involves the loss of a primary object, recognizing the lack, and seeking one’s desire—reflected in Fausta’s songs:
"… Poor dove, you shrink in fear, / And your soul is lost, little dove… / Perhaps you were born in war, amid pain and fear, / Perhaps they wronged you there… / You cannot live always suffering, shedding tears. / Seek your lost soul in the darkness of night, / In the earth and beneath it, seek it…"
And with the habitual trimming of the potato’s sprouts, she indeed finds something—within the earth of her body, in her vagina. She finds the potato as something phallic that can bring her pleasure and revive her dead body.
One morning, after meeting the gardener, Fausta opens the gate for him with a crimson flower in her mouth. "Red is the color of passion," as mentioned earlier in the film. It seems Fausta is on the verge of reclaiming her desire.
Everything changes more rapidly after a conversation with Noé:
"Why are there geraniums, camellias, daisies, cacti, and sweet potatoes in the garden? Everything except potatoes."
"And why are you afraid to walk the streets alone?"
"Because."
"That’s my answer too. Because."
"I’m not afraid because I want to be."
"Only death is inevitable; everything else depends on our desire."
"And when they kill and rape you—is that also inevitable?"
"Potatoes are cheap plants and bloom briefly."
During another wedding where Fausta helps her relatives, she vomits and clutches her lower abdomen—as if the potato is trying to escape.
One day, while Señora Aida is watering the garden, she suddenly finds a doll on the flower bed: "This is the doll I played with as a child. They told me if I buried it, it would never be found again because the earth would swallow it. Liars."
This scene can be interpreted as a reflection for the protagonist: the earth cannot swallow a little girl’s doll—perhaps it cannot swallow her soul either?
The mistress of "the house upstairs" deceives Fausta, steals her song, and abandons her in an unfamiliar part of the city, depriving her of her gift—the pearls.
At the celebration of life—a wedding for her cousin—she hides and falls asleep.
But she is awakened by her uncle, who covers her nose and mouth with his palm, then briefly suffocates her before saying, "See how scared you are? You want to live! You want to, but you’re afraid. So live, Fausta! Live!"
He stood frozen, overcome by a flood of tears, while Isidora Fausta ran away.
She could no longer endure the latest abuse and decided to take what was rightfully hers—the pearls promised by Señora Aida, symbols of femininity and the "gift of Isis"—which would pay for her mother’s funeral.
Noé finds the distraught Fausta at the gate of the house, unconscious. When she regains consciousness, she begs him to remove the tuber from her vagina: "Get it out! Get it out of there! Please…"
In the hospital, Fausta wakes up without the tuber but with a handful of pearls in her hand.
The loss has occurred, and the protagonist sets off to bury her mother.
Upon her return, she receives another gift from Noé—a pot with a grown potato plant, blooming and alive.
What was dead has come to life.
CONCLUSIONS
In the protagonist of this film, Fausta, I see a complex and profound set of issues. It is difficult to classify her case as borderline; rather, her condition seems to fall under the prism of melancholia, the so-called fourth structure or "a-structure."
However, this cannot be stated definitively, as we do not know Fausta’s full history—what her early development and life were like before her mother’s death.
Given this, we can propose a melancholic functioning of Fausta, though it may be transitional, as reflected in the film. This means we cannot dismiss the hypothesis of a possible borderline state.
There is a clear incorporation of the maternal object, narcissistic disinvestment of the self, an inability to separate and let go.
The main defense mechanism is denial/rejection.
Refusal to accept her mother’s death. Refusal of sexuality and relationships with people. Refusal of herself. Refusal of life.
Fausta speaks little, rarely shows her feelings; the main events unfold within her body. Somatization allows her to avoid translating psychic excitation into the conscious or preconscious realm. In her psychic reality, there is only emptiness, pain, and anxiety—both persecutory and invasive.
Yet I believe Fausta is not called "happy" for nothing, as under changing circumstances, she ultimately manages to let go of the primary object, opening space for new libidinal investments despite the hardships and misfortunes that have befallen her.
