‘Society Of The Snow’: Venice Review

Dir: J.A. Bayona. Uruguay/Spain/Chile. 2023. 143 mins.

October 13th, 1972: Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, a chartered plane carrying 45 passengers and crew from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, crashed high in the inhospitable Andes. Search and rescue attempts were abandoned after eight days. But, in what became known as “the Miracle of the Andes”, 16 passengers survived, having resorted to cannibalism out of desperation, and were rescued over two months later. J.A. Bayona’s adaptation of this much-filmed story is elevated by bracingly muscular action sequences. It manages to sustain a degree of tension despite an overlong running time and the fact that the outcome of the incident is unlikely to be a surprise to anyone.

What sets the film apart in terms of its approach is the decision not to focus entirely on the survivors

Bayona, who has already demonstrated his disaster movie chops with the tsunami thriller The Impossible, follows in the footsteps of a long line of other filmmakers in tackling the story of the Andes crash. Society Of The Snow (which is based on a book of the same title by Pablo Vierci) is the third feature film to be based on the event, following the 1976 Mexican production Survive! and Alive (1993), which was directed by Frank Marshall. The crash has also been the subject of numerous documentaries, served as the inspiration for the series Yellowjackets and featured in an episode of Rick And Morty. Netflix will no doubt be hoping that an audience appetite remains for a serious-minded and frequently spectacular Spanish-language version of the story following the film’s premiere as the closing film of the Venice Film Festival. 

What sets the film apart in terms of its approach is the decision not to focus entirely on the survivors. Bayona is at pains to ensure that the voices that are foregrounded are not necessarily those of the crash victims who eventually make it home.

We are introduced to a boisterous throng of young people – members of the Old Christians Club rugby union team, and their friends, families and supporters – who are caught up in the tumultuous excitement of the trip. The closest we have to a central character is studious, introverted Numa (Enzo Vogrincic), a figure on the periphery of the group who joined the flight at the urging of his more gregarious friends. But others drift to the centre of the story as the film progresses: Nando (Agustín Pardella) is severely injured and practically comatose following the accident but comes to serve a key role in the later part of the film. 

The picture is well-served by the decision to cast young, largely unknown actors from Uruguay and Argentina. Not only do they acquit themselves impressively in what was no doubt a physically demanding project, but there’s also an authenticity that comes with an unknown cast: no character has the implicit protection and status that comes with a name actor in the role.

Thrilling, kinetic camerawork and first-rate sound design ensure that the film’s action set pieces – the white-knuckle run-up to the accident, the crash itself, and a later catastrophic avalanche – are viscerally effective. The crash, in particular, fully knocks the wind out of the audience. But surviving is not just about thrills, and the film balances its action against long periods of existential despair and contemplation, with the characters lolling against the wrecked fuselage chewing on shoelaces in the hope of staving off hunger and postponing the impossible decision of whether to eat the bodies of their friends and loved ones.

It’s a balance that perhaps tips a little far towards inert longueurs at times, and the pacing drags during the second hour. However, the incredible-but-true resolution to the story ends the picture with a much-needed jolt of adrenaline.