They crashed in the mountains and turned to cannibalism. Finds Humanity: NPR

Snow Association is the latest to address the true story.

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Snow Association is the latest to address the true story.

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In October 1972, a plane carrying members of a Uruguayan rugby team, among others, crashed in the Andes.

A group of survivors survived the plane crash, but faced extreme cold, mountain snow, avalanches, and most famously, food shortages.

As they fought for their lives for over two months, they fed themselves by dismantling the corpses of those who were already dead.

The story of the accident and its aftermath has been told before, but in the hands of director Juan Antonio Bayona, who based his film on it. Snow Association In the book of the same name, we see the unique human side of survivors.

Bayona spoke with All things considered Host Scott Detrow on trying to capture the spirits of survivors and the “very transcendent act” of the way they live.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Highlights of the interview

Juan Antonio Bayona: So the first thing I did was go to the Valley of Tears, on the Argentine side of the Andes where the plane crashed. I was there at the same time of year. So I was able to sleep there in a small camp and experience altitude sickness, and experience the loneliness that you feel there. It was very touching. I was very impressed, not only by the view of those mountains – this is the largest mountain range on Earth – but also by the silence. When you're there, there's nothing alive, so the only thing you can hear is yourself.

Scott Detrow: Yes, mute the snow and visuals too. I mean, there are so many scenes in the movie where they look like specks on an all-white background, and you can just feel the isolation of the survivors out there alone with no other living being in sight. I want to ask about the dead for a moment, because I've presented this story the way it's often told: through the survivors, the people who have come back. But most of the people on that flight are dead, and your film is very intentional about incorporating their stories into it. Why was that so important to you?

Bayona: Well, actually, it was the survivors who decided 36 years after the plane crash to write another book, because they didn't recognize themselves in the tale. The story was, basically, about a rugby team, heroes who returned from the mountain, cannibalism. The story is about that, but when you read the book they wrote, it's a small part of the story — it's about love, and it's about generosity in the most extreme way. So it was like a story written against the story, you know, that was in popular minds.

Removal: I mean there's a lot of spirituality in the movie. Many people trying to survive are deeply religious. But as the film goes on, you see more and more faith in each other, faith in their community that really comes through in terms of what they say, but also in what they do, and how they treat each other.

Bayona: This is more about spirituality than religion. I think there was something beautiful in the way these people presented themselves to others, a kind of ritual where they offered their bodies in case their friends needed them. It's a very condescending act, you know, such an extreme way of being generous. There is something transcendent about this idea. For me, it's more about spirituality and finding that God can be everywhere.

Bayona says it was interesting to get into the minds of survivors and how they dealt with their experience.

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Bayona says it was interesting to get into the minds of survivors and how they dealt with their experience.

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Removal: I mean, you're talking about one of the most famous elements of their story, which is that the survivors decided that, in order to survive, they had to eat the bodies of people who died. It shows you the characters struggle with this decision. It shows them that they are thinking about it, putting it off, and struggling with the guilt that comes with it. But you also had to make decisions as a filmmaker about how to put that on screen. The most horrific part of it, the dismemberment of bodies, mostly happens off-screen. I've talked before about respecting their stories. How did you think about how to show this important part of the story in the right way?

Bayona: For me, it was all about getting inside their minds and trying to feel the story the way they felt on the mountain. These people, the first day they did this, felt miserable. They felt terrible, and they are the most miserable people on earth. The day after they finished, they lined up to get their rations. So the taboo was broken very quickly because they were starving in a way that we couldn't understand. It's the kind of hunger you feel after you've gone five days, six days, without eating anything and you know there's nothing to eat.

In fact, it was interesting to get into their minds. These people were people in college—some of them were studying medicine, some of them were studying law—and they approached the subject from all points of view in a very calm way, and they talked about everything, all together. And then days later, they decided they had to do it because there was no choice, which is very interesting, how they came to this massive consensus among all of them. I think that's what makes the experience so great, is the way they talk about things, listen to everyone, and don't force anyone to do anything against their will.

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Removal: I spoke with these survivors. I included them in the process. What did they want most from this movie? Going into it, looking at all the other ways they've been portrayed over the years, what did they tell you that was most important to them?

Bayona: For them, it was very important that the film do justice to the experience they had. I think ultimately what's at play here is the idea that we're all part of the same thing. There's this phrase, someone says to Roberto Canessa, “You have the strongest legs. You need to walk for us.” And for me, in this line, there is an unconscious realization that you and I are the same. And in doing that, I think you're touching on something as transcendent as we were talking about before. This way of understanding that we are all part of the same thing. There is no one more important than others here on the plane. To me, that was ultimately what kept these people involved. The way they gave to others, they gave to others, knowing they were all part of the same thing.