A fascinating documentary essay about time and memory, about nature and human nature
This extraordinary documentary essay film examines recent human history through the lens of the outer reaches of space. Patricio Guzman, celebrated documentarian whose work has always focused upon the hidden past of Chile, takes the opportunity here to consider the nature of time and memory by juxtaposing two seemingly incompatible investigations that are taking place in the Atacama desert of Chile. This desert, the driest place in the world, is home to some of the largest telescopes in the world, where astronomers take advantage of the arid skies in order to gaze at the cosmos, in hopes of unlocking the mysteries of the universe. At the same time, this desert is home to other, more unsettling mysteries, since it is believed that the bodies of political prisoners from the Pinochet era were buried here. As the astronomers research the stars, the families of victims examine the earth. As the astronomers look to the lights that shine in the midst of the darkness of the heavens,...
A Life Changing Experience
Very few films have affected me the way that "Nostaligia for the Light" has. I am haunted by its images of the barren Atacama desert, of the otherworldly moonscape on which both enormous telescopes and concentration camps have been built, of the crude rock carvings of the prehistoric inhabitants of the region. The way that the film ties these -- and many other -- images together is nothing short of triumphant.
Add to this the thematic explorations of the film -- time, grief, mystery, memory, human (and humane) frailty, the transience of all things, the genocide of political protestors during Pinochet's brutal tenure, and the search for meaning in an otherwise indifferent setting -- and you have a film that moved me beyond words. I have reviewed only a few products or books for Amazon, and generally don't place much stock in overly enthusiastic ramblings such as this one. Somehow, though, I felt compelled to comment on this film, which shed a great deal of light on a...
an amazing film. beautiful, stimulating.
a fantastic film that i highly recommend. unexpectedly, perhaps, it pulls together several strands, all fascinating in themselves, into one beautiful and humbling, touching story.
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