‘Society of the Snow’ Director J.A. Bayona and Author Pablo Vierci on Giving a Voice to Victims of 1972 Andes Flight Disaster: ‘A Life-Affirming Experience’
variety.comEd Meza @edmezavar J.A. Bayona’s Netflix drama “Society of the Snow” recounts the tragic story of the 1972 Uruguayan airplane crash high in the snow-covered Andes, of which 29 of the original 45 passengers initially survived, stranded on a glacier 4,000 meters above sea level aptly named the Valley of Tears.
Survivors of the doomed flight, which carried a rugby team and their friends and family members from Montevideo to Santiago, managed to stay alive for two and a half months by consuming the flesh of the deceased.
While it’s not the first cinematic re-telling of the harrowing ordeal, Bayona’s take and his source material — the book of the same name by Uruguayan writer and journalist Pablo Vierci — ensured that it would be unique not only in its authenticity, but also in giving voice not just to those who survived, but also to those who perished. “We always intended to make the most realistic and the most respectful version of the story possible,” Bayona tells Variety.
For the Spanish filmmaker, whose credits include such major Hollywood productions as “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” making the film in Spanish with local actors was an essential condition in order to attain that realism.
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