Society of the Snow (2023) movie review

In 1972, an amateur rugby team from Uruguay was scheduled to fly to Santiago, Chile to play against another team. The chartered flight was carrying 40 passengers, which included the team, their friends and family, and 5 crew members. The plane never made it to Santiago as it crashed in the Andes breaking the plan and killing several instantly. Society of the Snow is a poignant survival drama about the people on that plane and how the survivors managed to stay alive for 72 days without either help or food. It was Spain’s official selection for the 96th Academy Awards and has been nominated for two Oscars, Best International Feature Film and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic) is the ideal narrator for the story as he’s an outsider who doesn’t know most of the passengers except a couple of friends. Initially uninterested in travelling to Chile, Numa ultimately relents at the insistence of his mates. Most passengers were teens or in their early 20s and as part of a rugby team, at the peak of their physical prowess. But that didn’t help them from the loneliness they were about to experience in the vast, desolate expanse of the snowy Andes.

The plane crash sequence in the movie is remarkably effective because we know what’s about to happen; the sound amps up until the final hit and crash. It’s not a long scene and gives just enough information to let our imagination fill in the worst. The first week of the survival is told in excruciating detail. Lives get lost as fighting the elements becomes extremely difficult given the limited resources the survivors are left with. There wasn’t much food to speak of and the passengers didn’t pack for surviving in the snow.

The captain of the team, Marcelo Perez (Diego Vegezzi) tries to keep the morale of the survivors high suggesting help would be there soon. Days get more punishing but none as bad as the day they hear the search for the survivors was terminated on the barely working radio. You hear the most screams in that scene. The survivors did everything one could think of while watching the movie, Numa describing the situation best as ‘the stronger we got, the harder the mountain hit back’. Eventually, they ran out of food, and their bodies slowly ate away with a lack of protein. Heated discussions began on eating the flesh of the dead to survive, Numa being vocal for the first time expressing the idea to be morally repulsive. As an audience member, it’s impossible to comment on the morality of the issue when the circumstances are this dire.

This tale goes beyond religious and political beliefs. There is a thought-provoking scene in the movie where Numa’s friend tells him about religion and faith and what they mean to him living in that broken plane, injured and starving. Society of the Snow’s understated strength is the unfamiliar faces cast in the roles of the survivors. We see these youths in the prime of their life before the journey began, slowly deteriorating as the movie progresses due to the astounding work of the makeup artists and the actors’ dedication to losing weight.

The quiet protagonist of the film, Numa, has the soul of a hero. His morals and his body are tested every step of the way as he fights himself, learning what it means to live while contributing to the survival effort of the strangers who became friends, absorbing their strength and lending his own. We witness camaraderie but also the desperate need to survive in this beautiful movie. 

The very capable J.A. Bayona who has dealt with disaster movies like The Impossible and horror like The Orphanage, wisely tells the story as a drama, paying tribute to the survivors and the ones who lost their lives, alike. He avoids the usual movie tropes that could have made the film melodramatic and gets to the essence of the human experience. No one thinks life is easy, but after watching this movie, they may take some time out of their busy lives to appreciate life’s small wonders.