Nostalgia for the Light

Nostalgia for the Light is a fascinating 2010 documentary by Patricio Guzman that takes a broad look at the Atacama desert of Chile as a gateway to the past. He does this by examining its role in astronomy, archaeology and, most emotionally, in its use by the Pinochet government during the dictatorship.

The Atacama is the only place on Earth that has absolutely no humidity; there is no flora or fauna. This is a boon for astronomers, for the sky is translucent, and several observatories have been built there. It is also useful for archaeologists, as relics and carvings from the past have been undisturbed by moisture.

Also, during the Pinochet regime, it was home to a concentration camp and a dumping ground for the "disappeared," the political prisoners that were murdered, with their families having no knowledge of their fate.

As the word nostalgia suggests, Nostalgia for the Light concerns itself with the past. Astronomy, in essence, deals with the past, not only in the search for the origin of the universe, but because life itself is lived in the past. As one astronomer explains, there really is no present--everything we experience has a delay, whether it's the eight minutes it takes for the sunlight to reach the Earth, or the nanosecond it takes for us to see and hear everything in our normal day. As I look at this computer, a few feet away from me, the image takes millionths of a second to reach me, thus I am looking into the past, albeit the ridiculously recent past. The present exists only in our minds, and even then there is a delay in processing those thoughts to make a decision about them.

For archaeologists, the Atacama has carvings of shepherds that are a thousand years old. But, as an archaeologists points out, the recent past is hidden. Chile used Indians as miners during the 19th century, in almost slave-like conditions. Mining camps were later used to house political prisoners. Thirty-thousand were tortured, and another 30,000 are estimated not to have come forward. The remains of the dead were either thrown into the sea or buried in the desert, and mass graves have been uncovered. But many Chileans do not wish to dwell on the unpleasantness of these events.

Guzman interviews women who have spent close to thirty years sifting through the desert to find the remains of their loved ones. One woman describes how she has found bits and pieces of her brother, another woman, now 70, looks for her husband. It's an interesting view that these women need the physical part of  their loved one for closure--the second woman says if she found her husband and then died the next day, she would die happy.

This film is unlike any I've seen. It veers effortlessly from science to basic human emotions, and takes the view that we are all part of the universe. Calcium that makes up our bones comes from exploded stars. Essentially, we are all stardust.