Nostalgia for the Light

Nostalgia for the Light opens with a view of a telescope and images of our moon. The narrator, Patricio Guzmán, describes how he came to love astronomy and begins to remember his childhood during which “only the present moment existed.” Soon, Chile became the center of the world as astronomers and scientists flocked to Chile to observe the universe through the thin and clear skies. We next see Guzmán walking in the Atacama Desert, a place with absolutely no moisture, so much so that it resembles the surface of Mars. This desert, and its abundance of history, becomes the focus of the documentary. Because of how dry it is, the desert hosts the untouched remains of fish, mollusks, Indian carvings, and even mummified humans.