100
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It is deeply intelligent, intensely and painfully political, and yet attempts, and succeeds, somehow to transcend politics and perhaps even history itself.
Nostalgia for the Light (Nostalgia de la luz)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- France,
- Germany,
- Chile,
- Spain
- 2010
- · 90m
Director
Patricio Guzmán
Cast
Gaspar Galaz,
Lautaro Núñez,
Luís Henríquez,
Miguel,
Víctor González,
Vicky Saaveda
Genre
Documentary
We explore the skies above Chile's Atacama Desert with astronomers who study the stars and search for the origin of life. Meanwhile, on the ground, women work to reclaim their family histories, searching for the remains of their loved ones that had been dumped in the desert.
Stream Nostalgia for the Light
What are critics saying?
100
San Francisco Chronicle by Amy Biancolli
Nostalgia for the Light is a strange and stunning work of art: a poem disguised as a movie about astronomers in the Atacama desert of Chile.
100
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
What comes out of this unlikely comparison between astronomy and history is a totally new perspective, something broader, with glimpses into deeper meanings.
100
The Telegraph by Tim Robey
The network of links he builds, and the film’s ever-deepening empathy for those whose search can’t be satisfied, are persuasive enough to banish doubt, leaving you humbled, shocked and moved.
100
Time Out London by Dave Calhoun
Everything about this film makes you look with fresh eyes at the familiar.
100
Wall Street Journal by John Anderson
As a work of nonfiction, it deserves its own nomenclature. "Docu-poem" is too inelegant; "masterpiece" works, although it's been used before.
100
Washington Post by Ann Hornaday
Gracefully moving between the infinite and the practical, the celestial and the implacably grounded, Guzman has created a sensitive, richly textured portrait of time and place that transcends both those conceits.
90
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
A film of rare visual poetry that's simultaneously personal, political and philosophical, it's a genuine art film that's also unpretentious and easygoing.
90
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The film's passionate insistence on remembrance lends it a moral as well as a metaphysical weight. Mr. Guzmán's belief in eternal memory is an astounding leap of faith.
88
Boston Globe by Mark Feeney
What starts out as a beautifully depopulated filmic exercise - it's 14 minutes into the movie before Guzman introduces any people - becomes toward the end a nearly unbearable examination of good and bad in the human heart.
83
The A.V. Club by Noel Murray
It's also poetic and meditative in a way that never feels pretentious.
80
Empire by David Parkinson
A truly insightful art film that still manages to be easy-going and unpretentious.
80
Time Out by Keith Uhlich
A moving meditation on history, knowledge and mortality.
80
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Often stark and ravishing, Nostalgia for the Light is most moving as a manifestation of the filmmaker's stubborn righteousness.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Stephen Cole
Patricio Guzmán's documentary, Nostalgia for the Light, pays equal attention to the astronomers and searchers, regarding their quest as the same – a search for life.
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