STRANDED in Goteborg

Another film I got to see on my big trip was STRANDED: I'VE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED IN THE MOUNTAINS. I wrote back here that I was excited to see this. It's another film that was in Sundance. (They are quite a global cultural leader, this year fifty films came straight out of Sundance to Berlin, fifty!)

This is a very polished documentary on the well-known story of a group of Rugby players who crashed into the Andes in 1977 and ended up walking out of the winter wasteland over 70 days later. This story was made into the book and narrative film ALIVE. The documentary is pretty amazing, a beautifully structured piece, which grabs you right from the beginning with the visceral and terrifying facts of the situation and rarely lets up for the duration of the film. The interview subjects have clearly thought and spoke about this an incredible amount in the years since, and they craft very articulate and moving stories from this horrific experience. The use of recreations is a bit strange but wholly necessary and it’s handled here with a deft and careful touch. The film is a bit long for such a well known story but the audiences seem to want to keep watching more and more of this tale, extensive technical problems during my screening at Goteborg caused no one to leave their seats.


An interesting side note, Susan's dad worked as a producer on ALIVE and she got to go hang out on the set as a little girl.