In Chile, when the sun rises, it had to climb hills, walls and tops before reaching the last stone of the Cordillera. In my country, the Cordillera is everywhere. But for the Chilean citizens, it is an unknown territory. After going North for Nostalgia for the Light and South for The Pearl Button, I now feel ready to shoot this immense spine to explore its mysteries, powerful revelations of Chile's past and present history." - Patricio Guzmán. Patricio Guzmán sets out on a journey through the mountains, his narration accompanying elegant aerial shots of the mountain panorama. But his Andes are not just an impassive mountain range: the journey along its peaks also serves as a reconstruction of Chile's history and an attempt at finding lost memory. The film's second half includes a tribute to cameraman Pablo Salas, who remained in Chile after the Pinochet coup to film protest and oppression. Salas's archive represents the necessity for documentation and memory, using Guzmán's guiding principles for every film since he made The Battle of Chile some four decades ago.
