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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Society of the Snow

Enzo Vogrincic as Numa in Society of the Snow.

In the fall of 1972, a chartered flight from Uruguay to Chile crashed on a mountain ridge in the Andes. There were 45 passengers on board (including crew members), five of whom were killed upon impact followed by seven other casualties shortly after. Many of the remaining 33 had sustained life-threatening injuries, and the merciless environment of the Andes mountains provided no consolation. The ensuing weeks saw more death as the survivors fought freezing temperatures, high altitude, starvation, and—who knew things could get worse?—avalanches. Society of the Snow, a Spanish thriller directed by J. A. Bayona, reimagines this true story for the screen. Now streaming on Netflix, the film dramatizes the struggle of the 16 people who astoundingly returned from the Andes alive, in what today is referred to as the Milagro de los Andes (Miracle of the Andes). —Jack Sullivan

Photo: Quim Vives/Netflix