90 minutes / Color
Spanish / English subtitles
Release: 2011
Copyright: 2010
For his new film master director Patricio Guzman, famed for his political documentaries (THE BATTLE OF CHILE, THE PINOCHET CASE), travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth, the Atacama Desert, where atop the mountains astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. The sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe.
The Atacama is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of Pre-Columbian mummies; 19th century explorers and miners; and the remains of political prisoners, "disappeared" by the Chilean army after the military coup of September, 1973.
So while astronomers examine the most distant and oldest galaxies, at the foot of the mountains, women, surviving relatives of the disappeared whose bodies were dumped here, search, even after twenty-five years, for the remains of their loved ones, 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 gorgeous, moving, and deeply personal odyssey.
"NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT is not only Guzman's masterpiece; it is one of the most beautiful cinematographic efforts we have seen for a long time. Its complex canvas is woven with the greatest simplicity. For forty years, Patricio Guzman has had to struggle every inch of the way, with a vivid memory and intimate suffering to reach this work of cosmic serenity, of luminous intelligence, with a sensitivity that could melt stone. At such a level, the film becomes more than a film. An insane accolade to mankind, a stellar song for the dead, a life lesson. Silence and respect."—Jacques Mandelbaum, Le Monde
"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
"An extraordinary film about the unknown and the unknowable."—Sight & Sound Magazine
"An amazing film! Nostalgia for the Light gave me goosebumps so many times I lost count."—Andy "Copernicus" Howell, Ain't It Cool News
"Deeply Affecting!" Critics Pick—New York Magazine
"Such a moving masterpiece... NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT is Guzman's leap into a different sort of cinema: a philosophical treatise that is as stunning to the eye as it is disturbing to the brain... I was enthralled. So was the audience around me."—B. Ruby Rich, SF360
★★★★ "NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT may just be the most profound movie I have ever seen."—Peter Howell, Toronto Star
★★★★ "The ideas in NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT are nearly as big as the Big Bang, but Guzman's wise and lovely film maintains a careful balance between matters both macro and micro."—Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly
"The film is gorgeous, purposefully slow, almost a meditation. Guzman 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. Imagine Ansel Adams, working in colour, let loose in the Milky Way."—Stephen Cole, The Globe and Mail
★★★1/2 "Combining politics and science in a stirring visual essay… Highly Recommended"—Video Librarian
Select Accolades
The epic chronicle of Chile's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it in 1973.
Patricio Guzmán | 1998 | 263 minutes | Spanish | English subtitles
Five of the master documentarian's seminal works in an 8-disc boxset, with a 24-page booklet and bonus film about Guzman.
Patricio Guzmán | 2015 | 775 minutes | Color | English; Spanish | English subtitles
A spectacular visual essay composed of epic tableaus, a haunting vision of our modern food industry, and the methods and technology utilized for mass production.
Nikolaus Geyrhalter | 2018 | 92 minutes | Color
The story of the landmark legal case against General Augusto Pinochet of Chile, before and after his arrest in London in 1998.
Patricio Guzmán | 2002 | 109 minutes | Color | English; Spanish | English subtitles
