The Big Picture
- Netflix’s upcoming feature Society of the Snow follows a true life story of a group of athletes who must battle extreme conditions to survive after a plane crash in the Andes Mountains.
- The film highlights the efforts of the survivors to stay alive, showcasing humanity coming together in the face of terrible circumstances.
- Director J.A. Bayona, known for bringing unspeakable human disasters to life, will focus on the 16 individuals who ultimately made it out alive, as well as the others who survived the impact.
Life is unscripted. It can take the most bizarre of turns at the most unexpected time. It is left for those of us who live life to perceive and endure. Netflix’s upcoming feature follows a true life story along this path. What can you do when life throws a spanner in the works? Society of the Snow (“La Sociedad de la Nieve” in the original Spanish) a movie based on a real-life disaster by 2012 The Impossible director J.A. Bayona has set its theatrical release. The upcoming feature will premiere in select theaters this December before streaming on Netflix from January 4.
Based on a true story from 1972, Society of the Snow tells the harrowing tale of the quest for survival by a group of athletes in the aftermath of a plane crash. The film follows a Uruguayan rugby team on board the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 on their way to Chile. Upon arrival over the Andes Mountains, the flight crashes, with only 29 of the initial 45 aboard surviving the accident. To top off the troubling experience, they are trapped in a hostile and nearly inaccessible environment. The film will show the survivors efforts to stay alive at all costs – battling the elements and extreme hunger in what is a show of humanity coming together in the face of terrible circumstances.
The announcement video for the theatrical and streaming release offers a glimpse into the state the survivors have found themselves. Surrounded by snow and stranded in the Valley of Tears in the Andes in Argentina, one of the most remote, impenetrable areas on Earth, one of the survivors bellows into the wind, “Help!!” This tale is one that has captured the imaginations of humanity for over half a century. Bayona’s reputation as a director able to bring to life unspeakable human disasters is well known. His work on The Impossible about tourists and locals caught in a killer tsunami in Thailand is testament to that.
The Creative Team for Society of the Snow
Bayona version of events will be inspired by the book co-written by crash survivor Dr. Roberto Canessa and Uruguayan journalist Pablo Vierci’s non-fiction book “La Sociedad de la Nieve,” with the director focusing on the 16 souls who ultimately made it out alive, but also on those others of the initial 29 who survived the impact. The film is co-written by Bayona, Nicolás Casariego, Jaime Marques, and Bernat Vilaplana. The cast for Society of the Snow includes Enzo Vogrincic as Numa Turcatti, Matías Recalt, Agustín Pardella, Diego Vegezzi, Esteban Kukuriczka, Rafael Federman, and Andy Pruss.
Society of the Snow will premiere in select theaters in December before arriving Netflix on January 4.
