Marta Frago

In Dialogue with the Dead: The Snow Society by J.A. Bayona

Universidad de Navarra, Spain

J. A. Bayona writes and directs the film The Snow Society based on previous materials, such as the homonymous memoir (Vierci, 2008) and the documentary Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains (Arijón, 2007), but with a very personal perspective. This involves giving voice and engaging in a dialogue with the anonymous heroes who never returned from the well-known air crash in the Andes in 1972. Bayona’s story suggests that, through the actions and sacrifice of the deceased, another 16 people managed to survive. This paper will examine the various narrative resources in the script that generate this dialogue with the dead ―from narrating the story from the perspective of a deceased person to shifting the “character’s moment” to one of those who did not survive, or superimposing the names of the victims.

Bayona’s approach in this work is consistent with the rest of his filmography. There is a thematic and stylistic cohesion in Bayona’s work that involves presenting something monstrous or horrible as a prelude to death. Bayona is interested in the psychological state of the “living dead.” This is often a character approaching the final moment after experiencing horror or someone who crosses the threshold of existence but still has something to reveal to the world of the living. The supernatural is not only present in The Orphanage but also in films like The Impossible or A Monster Calls, and likewise, as it will be shown here, in the film version of The Snow Society.

Marta Frago is Associate Professor in Screenwriting and Film adaptations at the University of Navarra (Department of Film, TV & Digital Media). She studied Screenwriting at UCLA Ext. Later, she obtained her PhD with a dissertation about Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s screen adaptations from Henry James and E. M. Forster’s works. Since then, she has focused her research on modes of adaptation: from narrative text, real facts and famous people (biographies). Her publications include books (Leer, dialogar, escribir cine; Personaje, acción e identidad en cine y literatura), Chapters of books, and multiples articles in scientific journals, such as Javnost, Atlantis, Fotocinema or Communication & Society.