The Milk of Sorrow (2009)

  I really didn't know what to expect from this movie.  What I got was a potato in a vagina ten minutes in.

No joke.  I thought it was a subtitle error at first but, no, root vegetable in an orifice.  Ta-da!

Born during the Shining Path terrorist attacks in Peru, Fausta (Magaly Solier) has lived her entire life in fear.  Her family believes she contracted what amounts to an illness of fear from her mother's breast milk. Even after a doctor (Fausta gets nosebleeds and passes out when stressed) assures her family that "milk of sorrow" is not a real disease, they are not convinced.  The doctor is much more concerned with why Fausta has a potato in her hooha.  He warns her that having a rotting vegetable between her thighs will lead to life-threatening infections, but she is more afraid of rape than death.  Yep, that's right.  She put a potato in her cooch to keep from being raped.

When Fausta's mother dies she decides to have her buried in their home village.  Unfortunately, her family has spent every last dime they have on her cousin's upcoming wedding.  Her uncle tells Fausta that she needs to come up with the cash for a coffin and burial before the wedding day or he will bury her mother in the backyard.  Fausta takes a position as housemaid for a bitchy pianist and begins to slowly gain some control over her own life.

At first glance, this is not a movie that would appeal to the majority of people.  It is a slow-paced character study with minimal exposition on an unfamiliar culture.  It has very high expectations of you, the viewer.  If you are not familiar with South American history, the movie isn't going to tell you much.  It never mentions the Shining Path by name, nor its policy of mass gang rape as a means of keeping the locals in line. 

And yet, it manages to create a surprising amount of empathy for the main character.  That can probably be solely laid at the feet of Magaly Solier, whose expressive doe eyes and slow nervous movements do more to connect with the audience than any amount of dialogue.  Her sense of terror and trepidation is palpable.  I can't say that I enjoyed watching the movie because I don't think that's quite the right word, but I felt a realness from the character.