The extraordinary and harrowing story of the survivors of a 1972 plane crash in the Andes is the subject of a Spanish movie called “Society Of The Snow,” which has earned a Golden Globe nomination and is Spain’s entry for this year’s Oscars. Despite the shocking taboo of resorting to cannibalism to survive, none of the films and documentaries about this deadly crash even hint at this central part of the story in their titles. The survivors’ decision to consume the flesh of their deceased companions to survive for weeks in the wreckage is a central focus of the film.
The movie stands out from other versions of the story, such as the Hollywood blockbuster “Alive” and the award-winning factual account “Stranded,” by emphasizing the survivors’ ultimate choice of resorting to cannibalism to stay alive. The filmmakers behind “Society Of The Snow” faced the challenge of depicting this difficult decision on screen, leading to questions about the graphic nature of the images and how much is left to the viewer’s imagination.
The 1972 crash, which claimed the lives of 12 people out of the 45 on board the chartered air force plane, involved members of a top Uruguayan rugby squad on their way to a match in Chile. The survivors’ accounts of fighting starvation and making the impossible decision to consume human flesh are retold in a three-part documentary and reconstructed scenes. The reconstructions, unlike the vivid scenes in the movie, are low-budget and static, creating a sense of the survivors’ harrowing experience amid the wreckage.
The taboo of resorting to cannibalism, a word never used in these retellings, remains a central focus of the story. The survivors’ difficult decision to consume human flesh saved more than a dozen lives, but the very idea poses a challenge for filmmakers, as they grapple with how to depict the unimaginable choice made by the survivors. The movie “Society Of The Snow” and the related documentaries shed light on the survivors’ resilience and bravery in the face of extreme adversity, making the story of the Andes plane crash a gripping and compelling tale that continues to captivate audiences.