Being a film-lover, I have been fortunate enough to watch a large number of films over the last few months. I have seen all sorts of shots, all kinds of effects, several interesting story-lines and many very good experiments in cinema. However, nothing in any of those films made my chin drop the way this Franco-Spanish co-production did this evening. Patricio Guzman's 'Nostalgia de la luz' or Nostalgia for the Light had some of the most beautiful images of the cosmos and outer space that I have ever seen in my life.
Watching the film at the nice theatre at the Alliance Francaise de Bombay was an added bonus since such movies must be watched on a large screen. Before any of you think, this is just some documentary about space, I'd like to clarify that this is as much a story about the culture, psyche and history of the wonderful nation called Chile as it is about space.
The narrator spoke of a different Chile; the Chile before Augusto Pinochet's bloody and cruel regime, which incidentally was sponsored and backed by the United States of America!! Chileans have always had a love for astronomy and the film draws parallels to astronomers searching foo the hidden secrets of the cosmos along with women who are searching for the remains of loved ones killed by the Fascist Pinochet regime. The remains of many of Pinochet's victims lie in the same Atacama Desert where there is a centre to observe the stars. This centre is one place that I must visit in this lifetime.
After overthrowing Salvador Allende in 1973, General Pinochet seized power in Chile and unleashed a reign of terror that lasted until 1990. In Pinochet's Chile, thousands were murdered, 80,000 sent to concentration camps, with at least 30,000 of them being tortured.
This film is a visual treat and a great attempt at linking archaeology and astronomy along with recent tragic history. So the history-lover in me appreciated it as much as the star-gazing version of myself.
Here is the trailer of this must-watch film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FvhsYCkcN8
Watching the film at the nice theatre at the Alliance Francaise de Bombay was an added bonus since such movies must be watched on a large screen. Before any of you think, this is just some documentary about space, I'd like to clarify that this is as much a story about the culture, psyche and history of the wonderful nation called Chile as it is about space.
The narrator spoke of a different Chile; the Chile before Augusto Pinochet's bloody and cruel regime, which incidentally was sponsored and backed by the United States of America!! Chileans have always had a love for astronomy and the film draws parallels to astronomers searching foo the hidden secrets of the cosmos along with women who are searching for the remains of loved ones killed by the Fascist Pinochet regime. The remains of many of Pinochet's victims lie in the same Atacama Desert where there is a centre to observe the stars. This centre is one place that I must visit in this lifetime.
After overthrowing Salvador Allende in 1973, General Pinochet seized power in Chile and unleashed a reign of terror that lasted until 1990. In Pinochet's Chile, thousands were murdered, 80,000 sent to concentration camps, with at least 30,000 of them being tortured.
This film is a visual treat and a great attempt at linking archaeology and astronomy along with recent tragic history. So the history-lover in me appreciated it as much as the star-gazing version of myself.
Here is the trailer of this must-watch film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FvhsYCkcN8
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