There’s a new “unhinged” Netflix film based on a true story that is sure to leave fans shell-shocked.
The film, entitled Society of the Snow, follows a rugby team from Uruguay who board a plane to Chile for a game – only to crash in the middle of the snow-capped Andes Mountains. Only 12 people died on impact, with the others surviving long enough to live a truly harrowing experience.
Other survivors slowly succumbed to injuries sustained in the crash and to lack of food. To cope with the starvation, the survivors took to eating the corpses of their dead comrades, whose bodies had been preserved in the deep snow. Despite search and rescue attempts in the area, all the passengers were presumed dead.
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It was only after two and a half months that two survivors managed to attract help and rescue the others, with 16 people finally rescued and making it home after the crash. Numerous books have been written about the harrowing tale of survival, but Netflix is taking things a step further with its film adaptation.
The synopsis reads: “On Oct. 13, 1972, a rugby team from Montevideo, Uruguay, boarded Flight 571 to Santiago, Chile, for a match. But on their way through the snowy Andes — just short of their destination — the plane crashed deep in the barren mountains, where temperatures can reach 40 degrees below zero.
“Twelve people died on impact and several more were gravely injured. Only 29 lived to see a second day in the Andes. After multiple search-and-rescue planes combed the area, the search was called off and the passengers were presumed dead.
“After nearly two and a half months, 16 survivors were rescued. But what happened during those 72 days?”
Survivors who wrote memoirs about the crash revealed what it was really like to resort to eating human flesh, with Robert Canessa penning in his book I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives: “We laid the thin strips of frozen flesh aside on a piece of sheet metal. Each of us finally consumed our piece when we could bear to.”
Meanwhile, Ramon Sabella confessed to The Times: “Of course, the idea of eating human flesh was terrible, repugnant. It was hard to put in your mouth. But we got used to it.”
Carlitos Paez said human meat “doesn’t taste of anything, really” – and though they started with skin and fat, the survivors eventually had to eat muscle and brain, too. Each agreed that if they did die, the others would be “obliged to eat their bodies”.
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They had to explain to the families of the lost that their actions were pure survival after carving the bodies up with pieces of glass. Sabella added: “In a sense, our friends were some of the first organ donors in the world, they helped to nourish us and kept us alive.”
Society of the Snow lands on Netflix on January 4th, with director J. A. Bayona consulting closely with the survivors and their families to tell the tale as faithfully as possible. It was developed over an entire decade, and is set to leave fans truly horrified – but grateful to be alive.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
