Cinema Politica UBC is happy to present one of the most outstanding and celebrated documentary films of our time: Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light (2010).
UBC Norm Theatre
November 13, 2012, 6pm
Guzmán is one of Latin America’s most acclaimed filmmakers, famed for his politically charged documentaries that address questions of collective memory, history and revolution in his native Chile (The Battle of Chile, The Pinochet Case). Guzmán’s latest film, Nostalgia for the Light, has been called “not only Guzmán’s masterpiece; it is one of the most beautiful cinematographic efforts we have seen for a long time” (Le Monde).
In Nostalgia for the Light, Guzmán takes us on a journey to the Atacama Desert, the site of two different yet deeply related quests. The Atacama sky attracts astronomers from all corners of the world looking for answers from the cosmos. The sky is so translucent there that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe. The Atacama soil, on the other hand, is also a site of inquiry. The heat of the desert keeps human remains intact, from pre-Columbian mummies to the bodies of those “disappeared” after the 1973 military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.
So while astronomers examine the most distant and oldest galaxies, women, surviving relatives of the disappeared whose bodies were dumped here, search, even after twenty-five years, for the remains of their loved ones in order to reclaim their families’ histories. Melding the celestial quest of the astronomers and the earthly one of the women, Nostalgia for the Light is a cinematic masterpiece – a gorgeous, moving, and deeply personal odyssey.
An Official Selection of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Winner, 2011 International Documentary Association Award for Best Feature.
“Stunningly beautiful. I don’t know how you can put more into a film, or make one that’s more deeply moving.” —Stuart Klawans, The Nation
“The film is gorgeous, purposefully slow, almost a meditation. Guzmán tells us life in the Atacama Desert is an eternal book of memories. And he lingers on every page, capturing shots of constellations with the care of a master photographer.” —Stephen Cole, The Globe and Mail
Join us for Cinema Politica’s last screening of 2012, and bring your friends and family enjoy this deeply moving and visually stunning film!