This Thursday the 4th Netflix provided the film The snow company, chosen to represent Spain in the Oscar race, in its catalog. The film promises to be a faithful portrait of a true story: a Plane crash in the Andes that shocked the world in 1972.
This year, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was chartered to take an amateur rugby team to a game in Santiago, Chile. However, the plane crashed in the Valley of Tears in the Argentine Andes. Of the 45 passengers, 29 survived the impact.
“The Snow Society” was inspired by a plane crash that shocked the world in 1972. Photo: Netflix/Disclosure
The survivors faced endless cold days and took extreme measures to survive. At some point they had to make a deal to be able to eat the flesh of the dead. After 72 days, two of them managed to reach Chile and call for help. Only 16 were rescued alive in the socalled “Miracle of the Andes.”
The story has already been portrayed in several films and documentaries, such as “Mexican Survivors of the Andes” (1976) by René Cardona and “The Snow Society” (2007) by Uruguayan Gonzalo Arijón. But the Netflix film brings new features to the adaptation: It is authorized by the survivors and the families of the deceased and is spoken in Spanish.
“The Snow Society” is inspired by a book of the same name by journalist Pablo Vierci, who also served as a producer. Speaking to AFP, survivors of the tragedy praised the fidelity with which Juan Antonio Bayona, the film's director, portrayed the events.
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“In this film, people will understand what we went through,” commented Daniel Fernández Strauch. “Even the feeling of cold returns. It's completely realistic and also very well made. The story is pretty tough, but very well told,” said Fernández Strauch.
The film was shot over 141 nonconsecutive days in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. In September last year, the film was shown in Montevideo specifically for survivors and victims' families. Snow Society opened in theaters on December 14th.
*With information from AFP