La teta asustada is less of an imitation of any known cinematic style or mode of storytelling and more of an evocation of the feelings of helplessness, confusion, and injustice stemming from Peru's turbulent period of violence between the 1980s and 2000s as El Sendero Luminoso clashed with the government. An understanding of this history is necessary to appreciate and grasp the meaning of Fausta's sickness, la teta asustada, especially where the film provokes memories of that period through Fausta's struggles as a member of an indigenous Peruvian culture.
There's a lot of raw, suppressed emotion just barely revealed through each scene's subtleties, often played against the forthrightness of Fausta's mother singing about her rape and hope for a better life, and Fausta herself recites songs from her culture in the face of a modern oppressor, hearkening back to Peru's violent past. Those injustices are reevoked by Fausta's employer, to whom she is a servant, by her promising Fausta pearls if she sings—though this seems more like coercion—and she then steals her cultural songs.
Audiences might find some distaste or a strong sense of confusion at hearing about Fausta's method of preventing rape using a potato—forced on her by a neighbor when she was a child, no less. The anxiety of this being the reality haunts the viewer in the same way that la teta asustada haunts Fausta. Remorse and tension also arise when it's clear that Fausta's mother's mummified remains have been kept in the house in lieu of a proper burial. Though belief that the significance lies again with Peru's history, the film leaves much more to interpretation. In truth, it could have very little to do with El Sendero Luminoso, but the fact that Fausta is cursed by la teta asustada suggests otherwise.
La teta asustada is not clear about its own meaning, and perhaps that's for the better. To be indirect about an obvious fact may emphasize the directness of the commentary on it, so the director's decision to keep things vague yet well-established in a world of social inequity may entice viewers to recognize past happenings that were once kept secret. Being aesthetically pleasing—though in an off-putting way—but not very plot-driven, it is enjoyable with the expectation that it will, essentially, not be enjoyable or exciting.
There's a lot of raw, suppressed emotion just barely revealed through each scene's subtleties, often played against the forthrightness of Fausta's mother singing about her rape and hope for a better life, and Fausta herself recites songs from her culture in the face of a modern oppressor, hearkening back to Peru's violent past. Those injustices are reevoked by Fausta's employer, to whom she is a servant, by her promising Fausta pearls if she sings—though this seems more like coercion—and she then steals her cultural songs.
Audiences might find some distaste or a strong sense of confusion at hearing about Fausta's method of preventing rape using a potato—forced on her by a neighbor when she was a child, no less. The anxiety of this being the reality haunts the viewer in the same way that la teta asustada haunts Fausta. Remorse and tension also arise when it's clear that Fausta's mother's mummified remains have been kept in the house in lieu of a proper burial. Though belief that the significance lies again with Peru's history, the film leaves much more to interpretation. In truth, it could have very little to do with El Sendero Luminoso, but the fact that Fausta is cursed by la teta asustada suggests otherwise.
La teta asustada is not clear about its own meaning, and perhaps that's for the better. To be indirect about an obvious fact may emphasize the directness of the commentary on it, so the director's decision to keep things vague yet well-established in a world of social inequity may entice viewers to recognize past happenings that were once kept secret. Being aesthetically pleasing—though in an off-putting way—but not very plot-driven, it is enjoyable with the expectation that it will, essentially, not be enjoyable or exciting.