VIDEO: Film The Milk Of Sorrow Wins In Berlin

Mournful Peruvian entry "The Milk of Sorrow" (La Teta Asustada) won the coveted Golden Bear award for best picture at the Berlin film festival on Saturday.

The first ever Peruvian film in competition at the annual cinema showcase, the story revolves around Fausta, the product of a rape inflicted on her mother during two decades of rebel violence in which around 70,000 people died or disappeared.

After her mother's death, the virtually silent Fausta played by Magaly Solier is determined to give her a decent burial in her native village, but to do so must confront the fear that has afflicted her like a sickness throughout her life.

"This is for Peru. This is for our country," Peruvian-born director Claudia Llosa told the awards ceremony.

Although the slow-paced picture was not among the favourites to scoop the main award from 18 films in competition, it is likely to be a popular winner.

It includes the premise that Fausta, afraid of suffering the same fate as her mother, places a potato inside her, and haunting songs add to the magical realist feel.

The backdrop of violence that ripped Peru apart in the 1980s and 1990s is omnipresent despite never being portrayed.

The country was shattered by parallel wars by guerrillas seeking to impose communist rule, and in response the military and police committed widespread human rights abuses.

On a big night for South America, Uruguay's "Gigante" picked up two major prizes.

Like "The Milk of Sorrow", the picture is low-budget and slow-paced, and follows a supermarket security guard who becomes obsessed by a cleaning lady and begins to stalk her.

It shared the runner-up Silver Bear with German entry "Everyone Else" (Alle Anderen) and the Alfred Bauer award for innovation in filmmaking along with veteran Polish director Andrzej Wajda, who presented "Sweet Rush" (Tatarak).

STARS SHUNNED

The best director prize went to Iran's Asghar Farhadi for "About Elly" (Darbareye Elly), a popular film about middle-class Iranians who cause disaster when, in order to uphold strict social conventions, they layer lie upon lie.

The best actress Silver Bear was won by "Everyone Else" lead Birgit Minichmayr from Austria, and best actor was awarded to Malian Sotigui Kouyate for "London River".

Also starring Brenda Blethyn, the moving film recounts how two parents in London looking for children who go missing after the 2005 suicide attacks forge an unlikely friendship.

Films starring well-known actors were largely shunned, although "The Messenger", in which Woody Harrelson plays an army officer who tells next of kin that loved ones died in combat, won the screenplay Silver Bear.

The awards ceremony was the climax of the 11-day annual event at which hundreds of movies were showcased to the media and public as well as potential investors and distributors.

The main competition was seen as weak overall by critics.

Apart from "The Messenger" and Renee Zellweger's witty 1950s comedy "My One And Only", big Hollywood names failed to shine.

"Mammoth", starring Gael Garcia Bernal, tackled this year's hot-topic issue of globalisation, but was panned by critics, as was minimalist fashion spoof "Rage" in which Jude Law plays a cross-dressing model called Minx.

"Happy Tears" had a far-from-happy reception, despite Demi Moore and Parker Posey playing the lead roles.

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