It turns out that love does indeed have the power to rescue. Now she gives Astra loving care and a sense of security. She helps her mother cope with her difficult circumstances by taking care of her and the two seem to swap roles. The daughter (Rūta Kronberga) who has not received her mother’s milk and care grows up to be a cheerful and sweet girl. Devastated, she gives up not only her joy and love, but even on her newborn child by refusing to breastfeed it. But then the Soviet regime destroys the life of an outstanding and talented personality: an uncompromising and uncomfortable woman in conflict with the system, she is exiled to the countryside. And Ikstena succeeds in making their pain. But politics aside, the novel’s emotional core revolves around the mother’s longing for a better life and the daughter’s inability to save her. As a gynecologist, she is the first person to experiment with artificial insemination in the USSR. Even though the milk-imagery is a bit repetitive and sometimes comes across too heavy-handed, it aptly illuminates the political message of the book. Unlike the book, film focuses on the life of a young, promising doctor, Astra (Maja Doveika). At that time, people went out on the streets to fight for the restoration of their country’s sovereignty and independence. The period from the 1940s, when the first Soviet tanks invaded Latvia, to the singing revolution in the Baltics in 1987-1991. The novel tells the story of three generations of Latvian women during the Soviet occupation. Although based on Nora Ikstena’s autobiographical book “Soviet Milk”, the film is a fully independent work of art.
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