The Will to Live

By Axel Saenz

HAVANA TIMES – Recently I’ve been hearing about a movie called “Society of the Snow”, which is on Netflix, and seeing the cover I said to myself: I’ve already seen this movie.

I didn’t realize that “Society of the Snow” was released on January 4, 2024, until it was explained to me. I was surprised to wonder how I could have seen something that had just been released. The key is that I saw a different movie a long time ago called “Alive!”, made in the 1990s, which is about the same event as “Society of the Snow”. In addition, there is another even older Mexican film titled “Survive!”.

All the film adaptations come from books such as “Survive!” written by Clair Blair Jr, “Alive!” written by Piers Paul Read and “Society of the Snow” written by Pablo Verci. All are books based on the interviews they had with the 16 survivors of that fateful accident.

The plot tells the true story of the Uruguayan rugby team Old Christians Club from Carrasco, whose members were students from Stella Maris School in Montevideo. They were traveling to Santiago, Chile, on board Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 with their friends and family to play a friendly match, but their plane crashed while trying to fly over the Andes Mountains on October 13, 1972.

It is very hard to watch the characters struggle in the first act of the movie, which is the crash itself and the chaos that comes when the plane stays stuck in the snow. The only thing besides the chaos and the cold is the desire to live, that your companions or people who were close to you are alive.

In the film, watching how the characters, all young students, helped each other and cared for the wounded was astonishing. There was no single outstanding protagonist; several characters had their leading moment. In different situations, moments arose when only one person could perform a specific task or have a crucial idea, among the many priorities that had to be addressed in that difficult situation.

There is a character, Numa Turcatti, who narrates key moments of the film, he is our connection as a viewer to the situation lived, he is the one who unites us spiritually to the survivors.

Personally, I often notice details that pull me out of the film, such as the presence of fully 3D elements, which makes me think about the time spent to achieve maximum realism, that still doesn’t completely fool my mind. Also, when using chroma key screens (green or blue backgrounds that allows you to change the background in the editing), I tend to notice some inconsistencies in the backlighting compared to the lighting of the actors themselves, which breaks the cinematic illusion for me.

In this film, I experienced a constant sense of believability, which was excellent, as it didn’t take me out of the story at any point. This is something I love to point out, as sometimes preoccupation with special effects or visuals can interfere with my ability to fully enjoy a film. In this case, the film managed to hold me immersed in the plot without distraction, which I greatly appreciate.

“Society of the Snow” is a stark film, with very tense moments that keep you in complete suspense. Watching the characters go through difficult and exhaustive situations both physically and morally is what gives the film that touch of dark reality. The direction of the film makes you live with the characters the pain of hunger and the difficult decisions that lead them to the subsequent cannibalism.

This movie made me want to hug my relatives, live new experiences, do the things I normally don’t do because of disinterest or for not talking to people, it made me wish I had more time in general. Society of the Snow is a movie about living with everything you have so you won’t regret your actions at any moment.

In the movie, one line really stood with me: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). All the characters, in the difficult situation in which they found themselves, all demonstrated this love by giving their lives when they were alive as well as after they died. The film does not focus on cannibalism, but on spirituality. It highlights how the people who died are still alive in the hearts of the protagonists and how the film manages to immortalize those who lost their lives in the viewers’ memory.

Read more from the diary of Axel Saenz here on Havana Times.