A Uruguayan rugby team gets stranded in the Andes Mountains for 72 days after their plane crashes. Eventually the remaining survivors resorted to eating the bodies of those who died in order to continue on.

These true events that happened in 1972 — already the basis for a Hollywood film, 1993’s “Alive” — now become filmmaker J. A.

Bayona’s “Society of the Snow,” a retelling that finds in the material more than just a simple tale of the perseverance of the human spirit. Based on Pablo Vierci’s book of the same name, the screenplay by Bayona, Bernat Vilaplana, Jaime Marques-Olearraga and Nicolás Casariego also explores the emotional and spiritual struggle of what the survivors went through, maintaining their humanity even while facing the most inhuman of acts.

As one character observes, “What was once unthinkable has become routine. ” (The film is Spain’s entry for the international feature Academy Award and recently made the Oscars’ shortlist in the category, as well as for makeup and hairstyling, original score and visual effects.

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