Society of the Snow ★★★½

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding explored human morality through portraying the experiences of a group of adolescents who are isolated from the outside world after their plane crashes on a remote island. Golding’s novel posed the question – when mankind is truly alone and distanced from societal conventions, what comes to the forefront? Given that the boys of Lord of the Flies devolve into mutiny and barbarism, it would be reasonable to conclude that Golding is, at the very least, wary of mankind and its evil possibilities.

Less than twenty years following the publication of Lord of the Flies, the Old Christians Club rugby union team and their family & supporters found themselves in a disastrously similar predicament to the boys in Golding’s novel. On October 12, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed into a glacier en route to Santiago, Chile. The survivors – 33 initially – are isolated within the Andes Mountains in the cold of winter with zero civilization in sight. To survive, the passengers of the flight had to scour through luggage, airplane wreckage, and the personal belongings of the deceased to gather food and build a settlement within the hull of the plane sheltered from the harshest of wind and snowfall. They had to work together to assess their situation, come up with plans, and iterate through their possibilities for survival with risks emerging from hazardous weather, avalanches, and starvation. Ultimately, 16 of the passengers from Flight 571 survived after 72 days of isolation. J.A. Bayona’s latest feature Society of the Snow tells the story of their survival and the loss of life that occurred from the crash and the following weeks.

The events of the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster have inspired numerous books, films, and television shows including recent series Yellowjackets. The fact that any of the passengers survived the ordeal in itself is remarkable, let alone the resilience and hope demonstrated to survive 72 days of a harsh winter at an elevation exceeding ten thousand feet. The story of Flight 571 is testament to the remarkable spirit of mankind and makes a persuasive argument in favor of human nature as good at its very core.

Society of the Snow shows the resourcefulness of the survivors while paying homage to the deceased and the familial relationship and friendships between the flight’s passengers. Bayona cast many newcomers as actors in his film, and this helps establish an ensemble cast where one story or experience doesn’t draw in an audience’s attention over others. Each of the passengers is distinct in personality, perspective, and optimism, and Bayona portrays each character closely to their real-life counterpart.

Over 144 minutes, we come to know Nando’s (Agustín Pardella) tenacity, Roberto’s (Matías Recalt) courageousness, and Numa’s (Enzo Vogrincic Roldán) earnestness, Bayona choosing Numa as the narrator for Society of the Snow. Numa muses “what happens when the world deserts you?” at the start of the film, and many abstract philosophical questions become very realistic in the extremity of the passengers’ circumstances. Many of the passengers come from a Roman Catholic upbringing and Bayona recognizes their faith through the passengers’ search for inspiration and parallels from Biblical stories that could guide them as they become forced to make unfathomable decisions as the days progress.

When the passengers first crash, they quickly search for and set up an AM radio from their aircraft. They listen to the radio in hopes for updates on the search and rescue mission, and their hopes are crushed as tPheir search is called-off for the winter in light of the harsh conditions. It is at this point the passengers realize that if they are going to survive, it will have to be from their initiatives.

With overhead shots showing a vast expanse of mountains without a single blade of grass visible, cinematographer Pedro Luque places into perspective how isolated the passengers are. Combined with scenes shot within the interior of the plane hull, Society of the Snow invokes both the unsettling effect of claustrophobia and of being lost. Never a moment goes by in Society of the Snow where I wasn’t astounded by the horror of the passengers’ predicament and by their courageousness in light of it.

The Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster first caught the attention of Bayona when he was researching for his disaster thriller The Impossible. Society of the Snow, released ten years following The Impossible, builds on the storytelling prowess Bayona has developed throughout his career and reminds us of his propensity for both thriller and drama. In his film, Bayona crafts a delicate balance between the euphoria of survival with the sobering reality that most of the passengers did not make it. Those who survived emerged emaciated with the horrific experience of losing loved ones alongside them. Society of the Snow appropriately evokes feelings of loss while maintaining its humanistic message about the value of life and mankind’s capacity for good. 

To my knowledge, Lord of the Flies author William Golding never remarked on the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster. Thinking of the contrast between the boys in Lord of the Flies and the passengers of Flight 571, I’d have to conclude with a quote from last year’s Oppenheimer: “theory will take you only so far”.