Claudia Llosa

Peruvian-born writer-director-producer Claudia Llosa seemingly had greatness and remarkable ambition in her blood from the outset of her life, as the daughter of acclaimed filmmaker Luis Llosa and the niece of the iconic writer Mario Vargas Llosa. Born in 1976, Claudia attended the prestigious Anglo-Peruvian secondary school Newton College in her hometown of Lima, then earned her undergraduate degree in Communication Studies from the University of Lima. In the late 1990s Llosa relocated from Peru to Spain, where she enrolled in the graduate film program at the Escuela TAI school, then worked for an advertising agency in Barcelona while authoring her debut script on the side, which was produced as a feature drama in 2005. Entitled "MadeinUSA," and drawing heavily from Peruvian myth and lore, the saga is set in the apocryphal Andean village of Manayaycuna (Quechua for "The Town No One Can Enter"). The story unfolds during a syncretic religious festival that spans Good Friday through Easter Sunday, when nothing counts as a sin. The picture was a festival and arthouse success d'estime, netting such honors as Best Original Screenplay at the Havana International Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Rotterdam International Film Festival; it also announced the arrival of a major new directorial voice in Llosa. For her sophomore outing, "Milk of Sorrow" (2009), Llosa again cast young Solier in the lead role. An investigation of the 1980s Peruvian reign of terror known as the Shining Path Campaigns, it concerns a damaged girl who believes that her mother - a rape victim - has transmitted infected breast milk to her. "Milk of Sorrow" was an arthouse and critical hit, especially in the United States, where it was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar; it also won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Following some additional work on Spanish television, and the short subject "Loxoro" (2010), Llosa went into production on her third feature, "Aloft" (2014), her first with an A-list English-language cast. Co-starring Cillian Murphy and Jennifer Connelly, it told of the reunion between a downtrodden single mother and her long-abandoned son. Recalling "Milk of Sorrow," "Aloft" received a Golden Bear nomination at the Berlinale; it was also selected for the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.