British distributors New Wave Films will release on Blu-ray Patricio Guzman's documentary Nostalgia for the Light. In 2010, the film won Best Documentary Grand Prix at the European Film Awards and Francois Chalais Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It also appeared on the Sight & Sound Top 10 Best Movies of 2010 list. Nostalgia for the Light will be available for purchase online and in shops across the United Kingdom on October 22th.
Director Patricio Guzm�n, famed for his political documentaries capturing the history and politics of Chile (The Battle of Chile, Salvador Allende, The Pinochet Case), travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth. Atop the mountains of the Atacama Desert, 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 Desert 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 11, 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 Chilean women, Nostalgia for the Light is a gorgeous, moving, and deeply personal odyssey.
Special Features:
Chile - a galaxy of problems
Oscar Saa
Technician of the Stars
Jos� Maza
Sky Traveller
Maria Teresa and the Brown Dwarf
Astronomers from my Neighbourhood
Trailer
Note: Blu-ray.com has already reviewed the U.S. Blu-ray release of Nostalgia for the Light, courtesy of Icarus Films, here.