Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tunenut (A) on November 17, 2008 at 20:03:17

In the early 1970s, a plane crashed in the Andes mountains. The book Alive was a bestseller, and most people at least vaguely remember that the survivors ate the dead.

This documentary is comprised almost entirely of interviews with those survivors.

These were young Uraguayans, privileged, college students, physically fit, off on an adventure- a weekend rugby game in Chile. In a moment, everything changed. The crash killed about half of those on the plane, while the survivors found themselves in a valley deep in the Andes, surrounded by snow up to their chests.

This is an amazing story and an amazing film. These young people were dropped into a world without life, where life did not belong. They were forced to choose to fight for life or give in to death, and that was not an easy choice. Thirty years later, some of them revisit the valley that was their home - of course it is summer when they visit, the snow is gone, they are safe. But this is the place that everything in life changed for them. And you see that and hear it in their voices.

This is one I will not forget.