Vitals

Enzo Vogrincic as Numa Turcatti, Uruguayan law student and college soccer player

Andes Mountains, Fall 1972

Film: Society of the Snow
(Spanish title: La sociedad de la nieve)
Release Date: December 13, 2023
Director: J.A. Bayona
Costume Designer: Julio Suárez

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

On October 13th, 1972, an Uruguayan plane crashed in the Andean mountain range. Forty of us passengers and five crew members were on board the plane. Some say it was a tragedy, others call it a miracle. What really happened? What happens when the world abandons you? When you have no clothes and you’re freezing? When you have no food and you’re dying? The answer is in the mountain. We have to go back to the past to understand that the past is what changes the most…

Society of the Snow begins with the narration of Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic), a 24-year-old law student and footballer encouraged by friends to buy a cheap plane ticket to Chile on Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, joining his friend Gastón Costemalle (LOUTA) who was traveling with the Old Christians Rugby Club to play a match in Santiago. The flight departed from Montevideo 52 years ago today, followed by an overnight stop in Mendoza, Argentina.

The following day—Friday the 13th of October, 1972—Numa became one of 33 initial survivors when this FH-227D crashed into the Andes just inside the Argentinian side of the Chilean border. Numa’s narration describes this inhospitable pocket of nature where the temperature plunges to −22 °F at night as “a place where life is impossible.”

While official search efforts were called off after the first eight days, the young men endured a total of 72 days through an inspiring mix of fierce determination, resourcefulness, and teamwork, all while continually facing hardships like injury, disease, extreme weather, and avalanches that reduced them to less than half of their number. With an already dwindling food supply exhausted, the small group of remaining survivors resorted to cannibalism of their dead companions to stay alive—an unimaginable decision yet one that almost certainly saved the lives of the sixteen who were ultimately rescued in December 1972.

Skillfully directed by J.A. Bayona, Society of the Snow doesn’t shy away from these more disturbing facts of the incident while remaining a tasteful retelling that celebrates the survival of these sixteen while simultaneously honoring the memory of the dead. Wendy Ide of ScreenDaily cited the latter as one of the film’s greatest strengths, applauding that “Bayona is at pains to ensure that the voices that are foregrounded are not necessarily those of the crash victims who eventually make it home.” Continue reading →