One of the most recent hits from the cinematographic world has been The Snow Society. The film directed by John Anthony Bayonne achieved nothing less than thirteen Goya awards and was chosen to represent Spanish cinema in the Hollywood Oscar.
As you know, it narrates the incredible adventures of the survivors of flight 571 of the Uruguayan Air Force, which crashed in the Andes mountain range on October 1972, XNUMX. The Snow Society has received the best reviews, but there are also many Interesting Facts around her. Below, we will talk to you about all this, but first, we want to remind you of the facts on which it is based.
The events on which the film is based
The cast of The Snow Society
As we told you, on October 13, 1972, an aircraft crashed in the Andes Fairchild FH-227D who made the route from Montevideo a Santiago de Chile. There were 45 people traveling on this charter flight, including passengers and crew. Only 16 survived, as 13 perished in the crash, another four during the first night due to the freezing temperatures in the area and 12 died in subsequent days.
His passengers belonged to the Uruguayan rugby team Old Christians Club. After 72 days enduring the extreme conditions of the Andes, they managed to communicate with a Chilean mule driver named Sergio Catalan, who gave them food and notified the authorities.
The impressive survival feat of these people has been chronicled in books and movies. Not in vain, in addition to spending 72 days subjected to the extreme conditions of that mountain range, some of them walked another 10 through the mountains until they met the aforementioned Catalán on a tour of 60 kilometers. The survivors were finally rescued on December 23, 1972.
The Snow Society
Juan Antonio Bayona, director of The Snow Society
As we told you, the film The Snow Society tell that incredible feat and it is due to the director John Anthony Bayonne. This has a well-deserved prestige thanks to films like The Orphanage, Jurassic World: the fallen kingdom o Impossible and has obtained, among many others, the National Cinematography Award. Likewise, she was in charge of the script along with Bernat Vilaplana, Jaime Marques y Nicolas Casariego, although the film is based on the book of the same name by the Uruguayan writer Pablo Vierci.
And we can tell you the same about the production, for which Bayona has had the collaboration of Belén Atienza and Sandra Hermida. As for the performers, they embody the main roles Enzo Vogrincic like Numa Turcatti, Agustin Pardella like Nando Parrado and Matías Recalt like Roberto Canessa. And, along with them, Tomás Wolf, Diego Vegezzi, Fernando Contigiani and Esteban Kukuriczka appear in the cast.
On the other hand, we have already mentioned that The Snow Society won thirteen Goya awards. But it has also received audience awards at prestigious film festivals such as those of San Sebastián, Mill Valley or Middleburg. Likewise, Bayona won the Fierce award to the best director. And, above all, the film received two Oscar nominations (best international film and best makeup and hairstyling), although it did not obtain any of them.
But, once we have explained everything you need to know about The Snow Society, the time has come to show you some of the Interesting Facts around this film and the events it narrates.
The birth of a friendship
Enzo Vogrincik, one of the protagonists of the film
Due to bad weather conditions, flight 571 made a stopover in the Argentine city of Mendoza, something unusual on such a short journey. Since they had to spend the night there, Numa Turcatti, Antonio Vizintin y Juan Carlos Menendez They went out to dinner and partyed and met three girls. This would mean the origin of a friendship that would help them cope with the accident. However, only the second of them would manage to return.
A hotel just 22 kilometers away
The area of the Andes where the accident occurred
If the technological means we have today had existed, it is possible that the vast majority of the initial survivors would have managed to return to their homes. A simple GPS would have helped them. We tell you this because, just 22 kilometers away, they had an empty hotel where they could have taken shelter. At that distance from the Valley of Tears, where the wreckage of the plane was, was the Sosneado Thermal Hotel, popularly known as “Las Termas del Flaco”.
However, there are doubts about whether they could have crossed the river that separated them from it. But, if they had done so, for example, they would have been able to resist better the avalanche which occurred on October 29 and suffocated eight of them.
On the other hand, many have wondered why the expeditionaries who finally found Catalán they headed west instead of the other way. In fact, they had first moved east, but only found more remains of the plane. When they returned, they decided that it was best to walk in the other direction if they wanted to save their lives.
But there was another reason. Before dying, the pilot had told them that when they crashed, they were already in Chile. Therefore, the accident had taken place just after flying over the city of Curicó. Consequently, walking west they would find inhabited valleys.
Javier Methol or the resistance to everything
A Fairchild FH like the one that crashed in the Andes
There are people who seem to be subjected to a fate that is tragic on the one hand and beneficial on the other. It is the case of Javier Methol, a 37-year-old businessman who was one of the survivors. However, he was not going to take that flight. He did it with his wife at the last minute to go celebrate his anniversary.
As if that were not enough, he had already been on the verge of death on more occasions. Because of another accident, she had been in a coma for 10 days and suffered tuberculosis and serious hepatitis. Unfortunately, his wife, although she initially survived, perished in the aforementioned avalanche that we have mentioned.
Nando Parrado, a survivor that no one expected
Nando Parrado in a recent photo
Parrado was a strong rugby player who, as the days went by, became one of the leaders of the team called "snow society". In fact, it was, along with canessa y Vizintin, the one who carried out the expedition that, in the end, would save their lives when they met Catalán.
However, we say that he was also an unexpected survivor because was badly injured in the accident, with a big blow to the head. So much so that his colleagues thought that he would not make it through the first few hours afterwards. They left him on a metal board in contact with the snow.
Against all odds, he recovered and became one of those who were most convinced that they would survive. Unfortunately, he lost his mother and sister in the accident. Precisely, with the lipstick of the first, he wrote the note that he sent to Catalán and that would ultimately lead to his rescue.
Some red shoes in The Snow Society
Andes Museum, dedicated to the accident
Parrado's sister was called Susana, but she wasn't the only one. She had another who stayed in Uruguay and who had just had a daughter. During the stopover in Mendoza, Eugenia, the child's grandmother, bought some red patent leather shoes to give them to them when they return. After the accident, Nando found them among the remains of the device.
When he left on the journey that would take them to find the mule driver, he took them with him. And, having to separate from Vizintín, and he had to return to the group, he gave him one of them and told him some premonitory words. Specifically, these: "keep it, I will get to the destination, I will look for help, I will come back for you and you will give it to me."
Antonio Vizintín, the only one who was alone in the mountain
Mountaineers at the place where the monument to the survivors of The Snow Society is located
As we just told you, Vizintin, whom everyone called Tintin, had to turn back during the expedition that would lead them to find help. The weakness accumulated during all that time in the Andes meant that he could not endure the journey. Consequently, Parrado and Canessa, who were with him, decided to continue while he returned to the survivors.
The return journey was not easy either, since they had already walked for three days. But they believed he was in good condition to do so. In fact, he was the only one who was alone in the immensity of the mountains: on the one hand, he had the other survivors and, on the other, Canessa and Parrado. By the way, to make the way back easier and in order to save energy, resorted to ingenuity. When she reached the slope that she had to walk down, she sat down with her feet together and slid on the snow. Finally, this 19-year-old law student would be one of those who saved his life, perhaps, in part, because of this trait of ingenuity.
Along with him, Parrado and Canessa, the list of survivors was made up of José Pedro Algorta, Alfredo Delgado, Daniel Fernández, Roberto Álvarez, Roy Harley, José Luis Inciarte, Álvaro Mangino, the aforementioned Javier Methol, Carlos Páez, Ramón Sabella, Eduardo and Adolfo Strauch y Gustavo Zerbino. But we would be unfair if we failed to mention other people such as, for example, Numa Turcatti, who, when he died, left an inspiring letter about friendship or Liliana, the only woman who survived the crash. She died because of the avalanche, but before that she had been one of the most active and animated in the fight to survive.
In conclusion, The Snow Society is a great film that tells the famous survival story of the passengers of the vuelo 571 in the Andes. But, also, as you see, it is full of curious circumstances. Go ahead and see it and enjoy of the best cinema on the big screen.