Science: The secret of why the ‘Snow Society’ reflects reality

The production team also adapted shooting times Climate and meteorological advice at the crash site was taken into account to make the Valley of Tears, located on a glacier that has shrunk by 60 percent since 1972, look as close as possible to what it looked like 50 years ago, with virtually no impact. from climate change.

Cordoba doctors and researchers Antonio Escribano father (endocrine) and son (internal medicine) are responsible for chronologically adapting the body compositions and weights of 30 players between the ages of 18 and their early 20s according to the experiences of the victims and They went from looking like rugby players to being scrawny at the beginning of the movie and two months later, almost 30 pounds less.

“The challenge was to do this work not with one or two actors, as has been done at other times in the cinema, but with thirty actors, and to achieve such a rapid weight loss process in extreme recording conditions (-15 degrees) by Antonio Escribano Sr. “This affects his health or his ability to interpret the characters,” explains ., in an interview with EFE.

‘Biochemical scenario’

Escribano as soon as I arrive in Barcelona in October 2021 to start working on scripts. They do all kinds of tests actors: comprehensive body composition study that tells you where the fat or protein levels are, absolute analysis of all parameters, functional tests regarding oxygen consumption or ventilation, and maximum exhaustion tests.

same result They prepare 30 biochemical scenarios ‘Adapting each actor’s actual appearance to the film’s script and shooting times, a total of ‘approximately 7,000 pages of review.’

From October 2021 (when filming begins) to early 2022, doctors are focusing on individualized nutrition plans for the actors to gain muscle and weight (between 3 and 8 kilos), so they took a similar pace at the start of filming. As they were in the accident, they look like athletes going to competitions.

From February to May 22 the key was to achieve extreme weight loss (between 20 and 30 kilos) adapted to the demands of filming, where an actor suddenly had to lose 4 kilos in just 3 days or remain stable in 15 days without compromising health.

Move without showing hunger

Printers They made an impromptu clinic with all their equipment In one of the hotel rooms where the crew stayed in a town near the Sierra Nevada for most of the shooting, they worked with the catering chefs to prepare recipes tailored to the biochemical scenario.

“The majority of the players were Argentinian, so we looked for dishes they would like and made them very low in calories; we ended up with 70-calorie empanadas with a very soft puff pastry, up to 30 recipes for light soups for dinner or hunger, chocolate-flavored jellies, low-fat yoghurts.” or strategies to deceive with calorie-free sweets,” he elaborates.

The problem, he insists, is “not just the loss of more than 20 kilos in a few months or the seemingly distorted body morphology of the actors who clean up after the rescue.” Do this without interfering with the proper functioning of the brain, memorize and dramatize their roles“.

To do this, they took nutritional supplements tailored to each case, “containing vitamins such as A, B, C and precise amounts of selenium, zinc and iron.” One of his goals was to ensure that “nothing happens to the players.”

Mitigating the effects of climate change

Although most of the exteriors of ‘The Snow Society’ were shot in Granada, Backgrounds are real, recorded in the valley of tearsIn the Andes.

When part of the team, with the help and advice of climbers, went to record in October 2021, in the same month, but 49 years after the disaster, they encountered another reality: climate change.

“It was a disaster, there was almost no snow, everything looked brown“Margarita Huguet, production director of the Goya-nominated film, tells EFE.

In addition to the shrinking of the glacier, the valley “has since lost 30% of its snow coverRaúl Cordero, a climatologist from the University of Santiago de Chile, told EFE: “Lack of precipitation and high temperatures in winter cause the snow to melt earlier.”

After the first unsuccessful attempt, Huguet sought advice on meteorology and climate and based on this organized a second shoot in the Andes in August 2022 (the peak of the southern winter), in which Bayona and his team managed to inform the audience. A white display similar to the one in ’72; However, 2 years ago, the snow depth under their feet was a little over one meter, not 4 meters as it was then.

Both Cordero and Huguet agree that it would have been impossible to save lives if the crash had occurred last October: the snow cover would have been insufficient for the center part of the plane to slide off or for the bodies of those killed to be preserved as food. without getting sick from them.