After their collision in the mountains, they started eating other people. His emphasis is on humanity.

latest news updates : A plane carrying Uruguayan rugby players was among those on board when it crashed in the Andes in October 1972.

After surviving the plane crash, a few survivors had to deal with the bitter cold, snowy mountains, avalanches, and—most notably—a scarcity of food.

They consumed the corpses of those who had already passed away in order to sustain themselves throughout the more than two months they spent fighting for their lives.

Although the disaster and its aftermath have been portrayed before, Juan Antonio Bayona’s film Society of the Snow shows us a side of the survivors that is very human, despite the fact that the film is based on the book of the same name.

In an interview with Scott Detrow of All Things Considered, Bayona discussed her attempt to capture the souls of the survivors and their “very transcendental act” of living.

Juan Antonio Bayona: Consequently, I went to the accident site of the plane, the Valley of the Tears, which is located in the Andes in Argentina. And it was the same time of year that I was there. As a result, I was able to spend the night in a little camp, suffer from altitude sickness, and feel isolated there. It was just amazing. This is the world’s largest mountain range, therefore the sight of the mountains as well as the silence really amazed me. There is nothing alive when you are there, therefore the only sound you can hear is yourself.

Scott Detrow: Yes, the way the snow muffles the sound as well as the pictures. The movie has so many moments where the survivors are depicted as virtually being specks against a completely white background, and you can really feel their loneliness as they are the only living things left in the area. Since I recounted this narrative through the eyes of the survivors—those who managed to return—I would like to take a moment to pose some questions regarding the dead. However, the majority of those on that flight perished, and your movie makes a conscious effort to include their tales. Why did you think that was so important?

Bayona: Actually, because they didn’t see themselves in the story, the survivors decided to write another book 36 years after the plane tragedy. Essentially, the story revolved around the rugby team, the survivors of the mountain, and the act of cannibalism. Which is what the story is about, but if you read the book they wrote, you’ll see that it’s only a small portion of the story, which is really about love and great charity. It was, in other words, a story created against the narrative that was prevalent at the time.

Detrow: The movie is filled with a lot of spiritual content, really. A large number of those battling for their lives are devout Christians. However, as the film progresses, you witness an increasing amount of their mutual faith in one another and in their community, which is evident in not just what they say but also in their actions and how they treat one another.

Bayona: which is less about religion and more about spirituality. The way these folks offered themselves to the others, almost as a ritual offering their bodies to friends in need, struck me as very wonderful. It’s like this extreme form of generosity—it’s incredibly transcendental. That concept has a sublime quality. In my opinion, it’s more about developing a spirituality and realizing that God might exist anywhere.

Detrow: You are discussing one of the most well-known aspects of their tale, which is that the survivors came to the conclusion that they would have to consume the corpses of the deceased in order to survive. You portray the characters’ internal conflict over that choice. You portray them delaying it, considering it, and experiencing the associated guilt. However, you also had to decide as a filmmaker how to depict that on screen. The most horrifying aspect of it all, the chopping up of the corpses, takes place primarily off screen. You previously discussed showing respect for their narratives. How did you decide how to depict this crucial section of the narrative in the right way.

Bayona: It was crucial to them that the movie accurately depicted the ordeal they endured. The idea that we are all a part of the same entity is what I believe is there at the end. Someone is heard saying to Roberto Canessa, “You have the strongest legs,” in this particular statement. You must take a stroll for us. And it seems to me, in that line, that you and I are one and the same thing. And like we were talking earlier, I believe you’re touching something transcendental by doing this. This method of seeing that everything we are a part of is the same. In this realm, nobody is more significant than the others. That, in my opinion, is ultimately what unites these individuals. Knowing that they were all a part of the same thing, they volunteered to give to the others in the same way that they had given to the others.

Bayona: It ultimately came down to entering their heads and attempting to experience the tale as they did on the mountain, in my opinion. These people felt awful the first day they did that. They were the happiest people on the planet, they felt so bad. There was a line the day after they finished getting their food portions. Thus, the taboo was quickly broken since they were starving in a level that is incomprehensible to us. This type of hunger arises when you go five or six days without eating and realize there is nothing to eat.

In fact, learning about their thoughts was quite fascinating. These individuals were college students, some of whom were majoring in law and medicine. They handled the subject matter calmly and discussed everything collectively, approaching it from all angles. Days later, they came to the conclusion that there was nothing else for them to do. It’s fascinating to see how they came to this overwhelming accord among themselves. The way they discuss things, listen to everyone, and don’t make anyone do anything against their will, in my opinion, is what makes the experience so amazing.