(Madman)

No ‘tastes like chicken’ jokes please

The story of the football team who resorted to desperate means of survival after crashing in the Andes in the early ‘70s is one of the great tales of human endurance, stacking up easily beside James Scott’s 1991 fight against the odds in the Himalayas, or Stuart Diver in Thredbo. But for the first time since the airlift that brought the last living souls out of the Chilean Andes, a documentary has been made that conclusively investigates the drastic measures taken by these young men to save themselves.

The rugby team – made up of young medical students – along with some of their family and support staff, were only meant to have a short flight from Uruguay to Chile; but a drastic change in weather slammed the plane into the Andes mountain range. After shaking off the shock and dragging the dead away from the plane, the more than two dozen survivors settled back to wait for their rescue. As conditions worsened, and their meagre food rations dwindled, the survivors despaired at the news that the rescue was being abandoned.

The medical students eventually realised that their only hope lay in helping themselves to the flesh frozen on the corpses buried in the snow not far from the plane; while at home, some of their families fought for the rescue efforts to be renewed.

Incredibly, the survivors lasted more than two months in astonishing adversity. Arijon’s access to the men, along with his compassionate treatment of the subject, make this a compelling and affecting story.

*****

TIM MILFULL

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