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

All day I tried to write the post as more than a ten second joke or passing trifle of beatitude; I couldn't, so just watch the movie: it comes as close as anything can to making God present, and relevant, and intimate to the human spirit that is so fragile, so fickle, and so fundamentally correct: God exists only when He needs to exist, and that impermanence is not a bad idea or an act of cruelty; it's just the way things are.

The documentary has a simple strategy and a simpler structure for implementing it. Rather than create a story out of information, as does political or social commentary, or any other didactic art, or use overt cinematic conventions to define its aesthetic boundaries, as do most biographical or narrative pieces, Stranded uses a series of interviews with the survivors of the Uruguayan flight in order to bring the audience into such close and caring contact with the speakers that a kind of miracle occurs. Nothing definite is exchanged; there are no essential facts or meanings, just confessions, just the act of speaking that by its very nature calls to you, who listens, turning you into a part of what you hear.

Eventually you come to know, not merely to know about, these men and their ordeal. Through their generosity and candid strength, and thoughtfulness, you share their space, their purpose, their privacy. And in the recess of their consciousnesses, feeling their memories from the inside out, like a hand exploring the inner contour of the glove it wears, you summon the place of their suffering, you surround yourself with it, traveling with the survivors to the preserved place, healing there, making flesh whole again and spirit necessary. That isn't moviemaking; it's a sacrament.

In the photograph below, five survivors stand at the site of the crash. Roberto Canessa, who walked out of the mountains with Fernando Parrado, is center:

In a valley at the foot of the Andes, emaciated, Parrado (left) and Canessa (right) rest at the feet of a Chilean shepherd:

Parrado and Canessa at the time of filming:

The interviews are often so intense that I had to watch the documentary over a period of days in order not to go native. But it's worth it. It changes everything about everything.