Un shocking film which closed the Venice Film Festival 2023. The snow society of Spanish Juan Antonio Bayonafrom today on Netflixsays the air tragedy that occurred in 1972 on the ice of the Andes, on the border with Chile. A true story that the director reconstructs in detail following the pages of the book of the same name by Pablo Vierci.
After telling in The Impossible a family missing during the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Bayona grapples with reality again. And he does it with a true story already brought to the cinema by Frank Marshall in 1993 with Alive – Survivors, played among others by Ethan Hawke.
The snow society: the plot
1972. An Uruguay Air Force flight with a rugby team on board bound for Chile, crashes into the heart of the Andes. After the crash on the snow-capped peaks 29 of the 45 passengers survive. From that moment begins thebiggest nightmare: trying to survive in the plane’s fuselage which remained intact with very little food and to polar temperatures. Some of the passengers are seriously injured.
Rescuers are unable to locate him the crash site and soon the searches are interrupted. The men and women who fell in the Andes try with all their might to stay alive, even resorting to extreme methods such as cannibalism. Living as long as possible was the main goaland so the passengers decided to feed on the dead bodies.
Some of them still alive gave consent to eat their bodies in case they died. After 72 nightmarish days only sixteen people managed to see their family members again thanks to two members of the group who decided to cross the mountains on foot with the aim of reaching Chile. It was an almost impossible undertaking.
The true story of the 1972 plane crash
The film of Bayona follows the story of the plane crash that occurred in 1972 without neglecting dramatic and crude details such as cannibalism. In the Seventies it shocked public opinion because it forced society to deal with a topic considered taboo.
«After exhausting our food supplies and trying to swallow everything, from shoe soles to cigarettes and toothpaste we met to decide on what was the last resort for us – he recalled Roy Harley, one of the members of the rugby team – we did what we did for a living.”
In the film we witness moments of moral tension due to the extreme choice to be made. Some of the deeply religious group cannot conceive the idea of eating a human being. The nightmare borders on horror, but here the horror strangely has to do with life. So what is the right thing to do?
A scene from the film. (Netflix)
Bayona does better than Frank Marshall, director of Alive with Ethan Hawke
In the film, death prowls without making concessions among the passengers and their anguish is rendered almost palpable from the camera that closes in on the bodies of the survivors and between their breaths. Their suffering seems to go off the screen, their pain, hopes and last wishes touch. Bayona does better than Frank Marshall, director of Alive, the Spanish director’s film is decidedly more realistic. In the new The snow society the cold of death also freezes the bodies of the spectators.
The snow society in the shortlist of the 2024 Oscars
The snow society was included in the shortlist of the Best International Film category of the 2024 Oscar Awards. Juan Antonio Bayona’s film could represent Spain at the next Academy Awards. Nominations will be announced on January 23rd. The Spanish film could also contend with I captain by Matteo Garrone.
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