Nostalgia for the Light
Director Patricio Guzman
Countries France
Duration 90 min
Synopsis
In Chile, at three thousand metres altitude, astronomers from all over the world gather together in the Atacama desert to observe the stars. The desert sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe. It is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of the mummies, explorers and miners. But also the remains of the dictatorship’s political prisioners. Whilst the astronomers examine the most distant galaxies in search of probable extraterrestrial life, at the foot of the observatories a group of women are digging through the desert soil in search of their disappeared relatives. Guzmán says, "For an astronomer, the light of the stars takes hundreds of thousands of years to reach us. That is why astronomers are always looking back, to the past. Memory guarantees us life, as does the warmth of sunlight."
In Chile, at three thousand metres altitude, astronomers from all over the world gather together in the Atacama desert to observe the stars. The desert sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe. It is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of the mummies, explorers and miners. But also the remains of the dictatorship’s political prisioners. Whilst the astronomers examine the most distant galaxies in search of probable extraterrestrial life, at the foot of the observatories a group of women are digging through the desert soil in search of their disappeared relatives. Guzmán says, "For an astronomer, the light of the stars takes hundreds of thousands of years to reach us. That is why astronomers are always looking back, to the past. Memory guarantees us life, as does the warmth of sunlight."