On October 13th, 1972, a chartered plane which had been carrying, amongst others, a rugby team from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, crashed in the Andes mountains, one of the most inhospitable and inaccessible environments on the planet. Hearing from radio reports that search and rescue attempts have been abandoned after eight days, the survivors soon exhaust what meagre food supplies are to be found amid the baggage and wreckage. As the days become weeks, the freezing, starving young men are forced to contemplate the unthinkable in order to survive until the spring thaw. The story of the miracle of flight 571 has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries and films, the most famous of which being Frank Marshall’s 1993 film Alive, starring Ethan Hawke; J.A. Bayona’s take is a visceral, emotionally charged experience.

Notes by David O’Mahony