In 1972, a Uruguayan flight crashes in the remote heart of the Andes, forcing survivors to become each other's best hope.
Director: J. A. Bayona
J. A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow is a harrowing retelling of the 1972 Uruguayan flight disaster which strips away the gloss of previous adaptations and replaces it with grim authenticity. Bayona's film is a visceral experience on multiple levels as he places you in firmly in the life or death situation these people experienced. He wastes very little time with quick introductions at the airport serving as the entryway into the film and moving on to jolting recreation of the crash. Once on location, portions of the film were shot in the actual location, he uses the environment and elements to create a beautiful but unforgiving setting. It’s a masterstroke that makes the mountains and elements an ethereal but ominous entity unto itself. The ensemble cast each deliver strong committed performances throughout with each doing the most with their screen time. Enzo Vogrincic's Numa Turcatti is the closest the film offers as a main character, with his voiceover giving the film a meditative approach to their struggle for survival and the legacy of those lost. There's a tangible sense that Bayona intends to give the survivors and those that lost their life during the tragic events their due in respectful manner. There's very little levity here as the story is focused on the most basic levels of survival, never shying away from the physical toll the experience took on the individuals with the cast going through a similar transformation. It’s stark, impactful and makes the rescue land with an earn sense of veracity with the film's latter moments serving as a mournful rumination on the survivor's guilt. Society of the Snow proves to be a raw, authentic examination of the survivor's will to live in the most impossible of situations.
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