Nostalgia for the Light

In the Atacama Desert in Chile stands one of the most popular observatories in the world. The sky, seen from that particular location, is so translucent that it allows astronomers to see right to the boundaries of the universe. Not far away are the ruins of Chacabuco, a large camp where prisoners of the Pinochet regime worked as miners, often until their deaths. The Atacama Desert is so cold and arid that the bodies of the dead miners are mummified. A group of older women—relatives of the long-dead prisoners—still search for the remains of their loved ones, hoping to reclaim their families' histories. Among other testimony, a young astronomer reveals that her mother, once deported by the regime, now takes care of former prisoners. A survivor of Chacabuco tells how he learned the basics of star gazing there, while a fellow inmate shares the sketches he drew following his detention. Finally, an archaeologist shows the traces of nomadic civilizations that lived in this desert since prehistoric times.