Breaking viewership records on Netflix, ‘The Snow Society’, while collecting awards at first, is now taking bookstores by storm with its original format. Pablo Vierci’s book, which formed the basis of JA Bayona’s fifth feature film, was reprinted in Spain a few days later, fifteen years after its publication. 12 will win Goya Awards and has remained at the top of the sales charts ever since, promising to solidify that position if the film wins the Oscar on the 11th. Not only a personal friend of many of the survivors and survivors of the Andean Tragedy – and a self-described “custodian of its history” – Vierci was always involved in the film’s production process.
How do you explain the success of ‘Snow Community’?
I think it’s possible to explain this in a few ways. The most important thing for me is that both the book and the film tell an extraordinarily humanistic story. Stories about events like the one in the Andes tend to be apocalyptic and disgusting, like ‘Lord of the Flies’; Its purpose is to show that we are only one step away from turning into wild animals. Hobbes said that man is a wolf to man, but he was wrong. These children had died of cold and hunger on the mountaintop, abandoned by the rest of the world who had left them to die, and in the wake of these terrible conditions emerged a community marked by empathy, brotherhood and love. .
When you wrote your book, there was already a book about what was happening in the Andes: ‘They Live!’ by Piers Paul Read. Didn’t that make you hesitate?
Piers’ book was invaluable at the time. The truth about what happened had to be told because so many rumors and lies were being spread about the survivors. There were people there who said terrible things, such as that they were killing each other to eat each other, that they were postponing leaving the mountain to become famous. But Read was still an outside observer, writing his history immediately after the 16 returned, before he had time to process his experiences. Someone had to supplement it with another version.
Because you?
I grew up in the same neighborhood and school as them. I went to a class with Nando Parrado, who led the expedition with Roberto Canessa, which led to the rescue, and I also shared a class with many of those who died in the mountains. Writing about what happened from the beginning has become not just a commitment for me, but an obsession. If Read’s book was written only a few months after the events and based on short interviews with the survivors, I wrote ‘The Snow Society’ based on very long interviews and almost forty years later, when they were able to process their duels and the events they experienced. feelings. And most importantly, it was to tell the stories of those who did not return and provide closure to their families. An outsider couldn’t do this.
What is the biggest challenge you face in writing?
To be able to faithfully reflect what my friends experienced in the mountains and the magnitude of what they achieved. Be respectful of those who have returned and honor the memory of those who died.
How did you tackle the subject of anthropophagy?
In the only way possible: to make it clear, with a realistic desire and without making mistakes, that the only way they could survive was to do what they did, and that this was the greatest act of love and generosity imaginable. Because what is happening is not a group of people feeding on the corpses of others; What happened was that group of young people came to an agreement: “If I die, I want others to use me as food.” If you think about it, it was revolutionary. The first heart transplant had been performed only five years earlier, in 1967, and I believe that the heroes of the Andes were the pioneers of the normalization of organ donation.
How much do you think solidarity and generosity had to do with these young people becoming a rugby team?
It is a factor that helps explain the society that formed there, but it is not the only one. We must also take into account the school we attended, which focused on instilling human values rather than academic achievements. And of course, it should be taken into account that the people traveling on that plane were Uruguayans. My country was the first social democracy in the world and has always been a very egalitarian society.
To what extent did you personally contribute to the making of the film? JA Bayona?
I was involved in every stage of the process and am one of the co-producers of the film. I participated in early versions of the script with another screenwriter, but we soon realized that my closeness and devotion to the characters could have the opposite effect. I am the keeper of his story, and I found myself subconsciously trying to make the script tell everything about him and them. It would take several movies for this.
What lessons do you think our society can learn from the profit society?
The most important of these is that human beings reveal themselves as a being when they are faced with the most extreme conditions, when success, money and other elements that confuse their ego disappear from their environment. a kind person. I think both the book and the movie help the public understand the true meaning of life, that we are nothing if not generous and supportive.
Source: Informacion
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.