email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

PRODUCTION / FUNDING Spain

JA Bayona recreates the Andes plane crash in Society of the Snow

by 

- The director will take to Netflix to offer a new point of view on the tragedy that happened almost 50 years ago, which has already been portrayed on the big screen a number of times

JA Bayona recreates the Andes plane crash in Society of the Snow
Director JA Bayona and DoP Pedro Luque, scouting locations in the Andes

In 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which had been chartered to transport a rugby team to Chile, crashed into a glacier in the heart of the Andes. Only 29 of its 45 passengers survived the accident. Trapped in one of the most inaccessible and inhospitable places on the planet, they were forced to resort to extreme measures just to stay alive. This story was previously told in the French documentary Stranded by Gonzalo Arijon (2007), as well as in the fiction films Survive! by René Cardona (Mexico, 1976) and Alive by Frank Marshall (USA, 1993). JA Bayona (the man behind blockbusters such as The Impossible [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juan Antonio Bayona
film profile
]
, A Monster Calls [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juan Antonio Bayona
film profile
]
and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, and who is due to release the Amazon series The Lord of the Rings next year) tells this tale once again in Society of the Snow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: JA Bayona
film profile
]
, a Netflix film that is slated to begin filming in January.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

With a cast comprising Enzo Vogrincic, Agustín Pardella, Matías Recalt, Tomas Wolf, Diego Ariel Vegezzi, Esteban Kukuriczka, Francisco Romero, Rafael Federman, Felipe González Otaño,  Agustín Della Corte, Valentino Alonso, Simón Hempe, Fernando Contigiani, Benjamín Segura, Luciano Chatton, Agustín Berruti, Juan Caruso, Rocco Posca, Andy Pruss, Esteban Bigliardi, Paula Baldini, Blas Polidori, Felipe Ramusio, Santiago Vaca and Emanuel Parga, Society of the Snow boasts a screenplay penned by the director together with Bernat Vilaplana (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Jaime Marques (Malnazidos [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) and Nicolás Casariego (Intruders [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
film profile
]
).

The movie is based on Pablo Vierci’s book La sociedad de la nieve, and its shoot, led by DoP Pedro Luque, will take place in the Sierra Nevada (Andalusia), Montevideo (Uruguay) and various locations in the Andes (in both Chile and Argentina), including El Valle de las Lágrimas (lit. “The Valley of Tears”), the place where the fateful accident happened.

“It was during the documentation process for The Impossible that I came across La sociedad de la nieve, the fascinating chronicle that Vierci wrote about the tragedy in the Andes. More than ten years later, my fascination for the novel remains fully intact, and I’m happy to be taking on this challenge that lies ahead: portraying one of the most widely remembered events of the 20th century, with all of the complexity inherent in a tale that gives as much prominence to the survivors as it does to those who never returned from that mountain. Furthermore, I’m making it in Spanish, a language that I’m excited to be returning to after 14 years without filming in my native tongue, and with a cast of young Uruguayan and Argentinian actors whom I’m thrilled to be working with,” remarked Bayona.

For their part, producers Belén Atienza and Sandra Hermida stated: “After years spent working on the project, we’re very excited to start principal photography for Society of the Snow. We would like to thank Netflix for its resolute support, and we would especially like to thank the survivors and the families of the victims of the Andes tragedy for their enormous generosity as they have shared their stories with us.”

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Spanish)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy