Society of the Snow is a movie launched last December 2023. It is based on true events and tells the story of a plane crash that took place in the Andes only 50 years ago. Although it is a film that encompasses all kinds of emotions and can be very hard for some, it has already won several awards such as the Middleburg Film Festival, and is nominated for others like the Golden Globes.
J.A Bayona (Juan Antonio Bayona) is the movie producer and director of this movie. He is from Catalonia, Spain. Bayona has directed a large list of movies, standing out are movies like The Impossible or A Monster Calls. He also participated in the production of Jurassic Park. He got interested in this story around 12 years ago when he read a book about it. He was so shocked that he began researching all the details about it, including talking to the real survivors.
“I discovered something much bigger than I expected at all levels: spiritual, human, psychological, and even philosophical,” explained Bayona. Shooting this movie was a challenge because Spanish-language movies are almost impossible to shoot if you want to have a big budget. However, Bayona wanted to make it in Spanish and for the actors to be of the same nationality as the survivors, to get closer to reality.
As explained above, the events on which the film is based is an accident of a plane of the Uruguayan air forces. It was traveling with a rugby team of youngsters around 18-26 years old and some of their relatives who were going to a game in Chile. The plane crashed and split into two parts in the middle of nowhere in the Andes. They had to learn how to live a total of 72 days in the snow. At many times, the rescuers gave up their search for the lost.
“Those were days full of tragedy, of misfortunes, of extremely difficult and unbearable trials,” survivor, Pablo Vierci stated.
They lived in extremely cold temperatures, without sufficient warm clothing and blankets, and without any way to communicate with the world. They had no water so they melted the snow, but they did not have any food either. This is where one of the most important and controversial issues in this story comes from. They had to feed on the human flesh of their lost companions, otherwise they would never survive.
“The idea of eating human flesh was repugnant. It was hard to put it in our mouths, but we got used to it. Our friends helped nourish us and kept us alive,” explained Moncho Sabella, one of the 16 survivors.
Some of the survivors appear on the sly in the movie. Even though some stand out more than others, most of them are seen. Carlitos Paez, who was the youngest survivor, is the only one who has dialogue in his scene, reading a list with all the names of the survivors on the radio. When the accident happened, his dad was the one who did this. There is another cameo by Fernando Parrado, who opens a door in the airport to the actor who plays him. As well as Roberto Canessa who has the role of a doctor in the rescue of his actor.
When the survivors saw the movie they were impressed to see again what they lived through. I imagine it was hard to remember that part of their life but they are thankful to give a vision of what they lived.
“Sometimes I was confused if what I was seeing were the photos I took on the mountain or if it was what they were filming.” said survivor, Antonio Vizintín.
Even so, Roberto Canessa, one of the survivors, said that the movie is a light version of what happened in the mountains, and if there was a movie about how it really was, the audience would leave the cinema. I think that could happen, after all, they are the only ones who really know the reality and conditions they had and if there was a documentary or movie about it, it would probably be so hard to see and many people could not continue watching it due to the horrible things that occurred.
In conclusion, Society of the Snow is a great movie that shows a lot of values, from the importance of unity to making very hard decisions, and the sacrifice and the confidence between others. I highly recommend this movie to everyone. I think it can change the way you see life and think about things that you never thought were important. This accident happened to them but you never know if one day you will be living in one of these horrible situations. The production, the actors, and the reality of the movie stand out in the cinema field. Even though it can be a little bit long, I consider it is still very good, poignant, insightful, and surprising and can bring out a lot of emotions.
