Product Description

The documentary 'Stranded: I Have Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains' recounts in gripping detail the 1972 ordeal suffered by a group of Uruguayan rugby players whose airplane crashed in the Andes. Seventy-two days later, 16 survivors came home, having endured injuries, life-threatening cold, starvation, avalanches and unspeakable emotional and physical hardship.

Their remarkable story was the subject of the 1974 book 'Alive,' which was later turned into a fictionalized movie. But here the survivors themselves finally appear on camera to recount and in large part relive their tale, a harrowing story of courage and spiritual transcendence. Their talking-head interviews are punctuated by reenactments, a few ghostly photographs they took during their time in the mountains and footage of their return to the site of the crash two years ago, with family members in tow. Filmmaker Gonzalo Arijon treats the men's story with compassion and sensitivity, especially regarding the cannibalism to which they resorted in order to survive -- a topic of sensationalized media coverage at the time.

'Stranded' combines the derring-do of classic adventure tales with far more serious issues of moral agency. And it serves as a haunting reminder to seek joy and beauty, even in the depths of despair

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40157 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-10-19
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Synopsis
In October 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players from Montevideo, Uruguay, went down in a snow-covered valley in the Andes. The dramatic tale of the survivors' struggle to stay alive and be rescued, already told in a bestselling book and feature film, finds new depth and resonance in STRANDED: I'VE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED ON THE MOUNTAINS.

Director Gonzalo Arijon, a childhood friend of some of the survivors, takes them back to the crash site, where they go into agonizing detail as they tell their remarkable, heartbreaking story, aided by re-creations of pivotal events. With no more food, they were forced to break one of humanity's primary taboos, using the bodies of their dead friends and relatives to have even a chance of remaining alive and being rescued in the Valley of Tears. Arijon talks to such brave survivors as Roberto Canessa, Gustavo Zerbino, Adolfo 'Fito' Strauch, Antonio Vinzintin, and Carlos Paez as they reach deep within themselves, looking back on what they did with a fascinating perspective, a group of men in their fifties reexamining their struggle to survive when they they were around 19 and 20, with the rest of their lives in front of them as they ventured out of their country for the first time and encountered horrible tragedy. Florencia De Concillo-Perrin's score adds to the tension, and the film plays out like a gripping procedural, including interviews with people who were leading the rescue effort. Both frightening and exhilarating, STRANDED, which has won awards at film festivals all around the world, is an unforgettable documentary about an unforgettable story.