Eyes in the sky

Updated on: 11 October,2011 09:36 AM IST |
The Guide Team |

Witness a mix of astronomy and Human Rights in Patricio Guzman's Nostalgie de la lumiere

Eyes in the sky

Witness a mix of astronomy and Human Rights in Patricio Guzman's Nostalgie de la lumiere

While one would associate sandy deserts as a place where no life can sustain, the Atacama Desert in Chile has many lives and parallel worlds entangled with it. Located at an altitude of 3,000 metres, the desert is a place where astronomers from around the world gather to observe stars because of its clear skies.

Being the driest place on the earth, it's also a place where one can find mummified remains of humans especially prisoners of the regime of Augusto Pinochet. Nostalgie de la lumiere or Nostalgia for the Light documents this very situation where astronomers look for life outside the earth while at the same place women look for the bones of their family members who lost their lives during the tyrannical presidential regime of Pinochet.

The 2010 documentary, an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, was made by well-known Chilean documentary maker Patricio Guzman. Through this movie, Guzman weaves different stories of the past and present and portrays a philosophical reflection of how things that may seem disconnected share a bond.

Interestingly, Guzman had been imprisoned in 1973 after which he left the country. He is known for another three-part documentary on Chile called The Battle of Chile.