Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains

This is an excellent, respectful piece of work. It made me feel as if I were there and challenged my preconceptions of this story. It's much better than the film from 1993 "Alive" which tended to sensationalise. Do try to see it, you will be a better person for it.

Says the Telegraph: "They smelled of the grave," says a Chilean shepherd as he describes his first encounter with some of the survivors of the infamous 1972 plane crash in the Andes which hit the headlines with its tales of cannibalism. Gonzalo Arijón's dramatised documentary recalls the aftermath of a snowstorm that caused a plane carrying 45 members of a Uruguayan rugby team to crash in the appropriately named Valley of Tears. Sixteen of them survived by eating the dead, an "intimate communion" movingly recalled in the reminiscences of the survivors. It makes for a well-crafted, powerful film about human survival."

I was hit very hard by these first-hand testimonies told, 36 years later, as if they had been lived yesterday. In the middle of the movie I began to pray. It just happened spontaneously in front of this amazing testimony of faith, a faith that made the miracle that those bodies worn and weary physically and psychologically were able to resist continuing adversity -first the crash, then the avalanche-, for so many days -two months- and then make that final effort that can not be humanly explained. The miracle is both of those who survived as well as of those who died and gave -spiritually and materially- their lives for the others. Thanks to those who made the film. Thanks that we could saw it. See it.

This documentary has a very sombre tone and is almost forlorn in its retelling of the narrative. It gathers pretty much everyone who, in some capacity, was involved in this tragedy. From the survivors to people who were initially looking for them. If you have never heard this story, it will vex you as you hear one of them recall how he stared at the bodies of his mother and sister, whom he couldn't save. All that, even when you can see and hear the survivors, and fundamentally, be sure that not everyone died. If you are fascinated by the story of the crash beyond measure, this is even a bigger treat because, as I said, they convene everyone for an interview. Even the shepherds who discovered the pair that had traversed the mountains. The recreations of the events, despite being clearly made to cover the fact that they weren't working with a colossal budget, ironically give off more atmosphere of dread than the 1993 movie with Hawke. They almost seek to mimic how the recollections of the events might look for survivors with the added passage of time.

In 1972, a plane crashed high in the Andean mountains. The survivors endured cold and helplessness with remarkable fortitude and solidarity. When they ran out of food, they ate the bodies of the dead. Eventually, near death after over two months, two of them trekked for ten days and found help. This astonishing documentary tells their stories in their own words. There are a few pictures from the time; some reconstruction; and footage from a visit they took with their families over 30 years later to the site of the crash. It's understated, and slow, but brilliantly does justice to their experience and leaves the viewer with a sense of profound amazement at what humans at their best can do in adversity. And how life is always worth saving, even when all appears lost.

The story of the survivors of the famous plane crash that inspired 'Alive' – the book and movie.

But rather than focus on the sensationalistic aspects (the death, the cannibalism), it focuses on the emotions, the spiritual crisies, the triumphs and the humanity of these remarkable men.

Through a mix of amazingly candid, open (and beautifully shot) interviews, subtle, well done re- creation footage (a technique I usually despise, but is done so deftly that it works), old footage and photographs, and film of the men returning to the site of their harrowing adventure 30 years later, some with their children, this creates a deeply moving portrait of friendship, loss, courage, and introspection.