Cinema Tropical at 25: Nostalgia for the Light

In his stirring 2010 visual essay, Chilean master documentarian Patricio Guzmán turns to the remote, high-altitude Atacama Desert to craft a meditation on memory, history, and eternity. Beneath some of the clearest skies on Earth, astronomers gather to study the origins of the universe. Yet the desert also preserves traces of the past—from pre-Columbian mummies to the remains of political prisoners disappeared after Chile’s 1973 military coup. In this otherworldly landscape, earthly and celestial quests converge: archaeologists uncover ancient civilizations, women search for their missing loved ones, and astronomers scan the heavens for distant galaxies. Nostalgia for the Light opens Guzmán’s celebrated trilogy exploring landscape, memory, and Chile’s unresolved past. Cinema Tropical continues the celebration of its 25th anniversary with landmark Latin American films of the new millennium.