Nostalgia for the Light (Revised)

Everything we are experiencing in the world is the past. At least, that is one of the theses in Patricio Guzmán’s latest documentary, “Nostalgia for the Light.” Early on we are informed that, because of minute, millisecond delays in our perceptive abilities, the present is a fleeting idea, and not something to be tangibly experienced.

With audiences questioning the reality of the world they’re living in (and maybe even more interestingly, the one that they’re experiencing onscreen) Guzmán launches into a well-balanced film about the noble quest of the astronomer, the emotional and political ramifications of dictatorial leadership, nostalgia, and the importance of memory and the past.

The film opens with quietly breathtaking images of the world’s most powerful telescopes. These signify “Nostalgia’s” journey into the universal. The film is constructed through a series of interviews with seemingly unconnected subjects – an astronomer, an anthropologist, and numerous victims of Chilean dictatorial violence. By juxtaposing such drastically different subjects, Guzmán reveals universal truths about memory and its vitality.

All of the subjects interviewed against the backdrop of the Atacama Desert (the driest place on earth), and all of them have something to say about the past. The astronomers are searching for explanations about the construction of the universe, the anthropologist is searching for answers about political atrocities, and the victims of these political atrocities are searching for tangible tokens of the past. These interviews are interspersed with grandiose images of outer space, alluding to the far-reaching ideas Guzmán hopes to explore.

The film thrives during its personal examinations of political prisoners and victims of the atrocities committed by the Chilean military and government. We are introduced to an architect who can remember the exact dimensions of the political concentration camp that he lived in, a daughter whose parents were executed by the government, and a group of women tirelessly hunting for the remains of their loved ones. All have been wronged in some way by the government, and all have a different relationship with the past. Most affecting are the women that search for the bones of their husbands. As they explain, the uncovering of their relative’s remains will provide a moment of much needed catharsis in their quest for reconciliation with the past.

The haunting images of “Nostalgia” linger in the mind. The dignified faces of the political prisoners, the elderly women with arched backs, pouring over miles of the landscape, and the Atacama Desert – a vast, dry, empty space that allows for exploration and reflection. These images punctuate the pertinent points made by Guzmán’s interviewees and act as a visual connection for their verbal pontification.

For all its far-reaching grandeur, “Nostalgia” is not without flaws. The film suffers when it strays too far from the struggles of the political prisoners. The all-encompassing proclamations of the astronomers are at times overbearing, and the connections they make about the past are ones we’ve already intuited. A little more trust in himself as a director and the audience as an interpreter would strengthen the film. That being said, “Nostalgia for the Light” gives audience much to reflect on – exactly what it sets out to do from the start.