By Patricio Guzman
For his new film master director Patricio Guzman, famed for his political documentaries (THE BATTLE OF CHILE, THE PINOCHET CASE), travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth, the Atacama Desert, where atop the mountains astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. The sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe.
The Atacama is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of Pre-Columbian mummies; 19th century explorers and miners; and the remains of political prisoners, "disappeared" by the Chilean army after the military coup of September, 1973.
So while astronomers examine the most distant and oldest galaxies, at the foot of the mountains, women, surviving relatives of the disappeared whose bodies were dumped here, search, even after twenty-five years, for the remains of their loved ones, to reclaim their families' histories.
Melding the celestial quest of the astronomers and the earthly one of the women, NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT is a gorgeous, moving, and deeply personal odyssey.
Reviews
~ "Stunningly beautiful. I don't know how you can put more into a film, or make one that's more deeply moving." - Stuart Klawans, The Nation
~ "An extraordinary film about the unknown and the unknowable." - Sight & Sound Magazine
~ "An amazing film! Nostalgia for the Light gave me goosebumps so many times I lost count." - Andy "Copernicus" Howell, Ain't It Cool News
Awards
~ Winner Best Documentary, Prix ARTE, 2010 European Film Academy Awards
~ Winner Best Documentary, 2010 Abu Dhabi Film Festival
|