The Cordillera of Dreams

Completing his sublimely meditative trilogy on time, memory and the relationship of Chile’s landscapes to its troubled history, Patricio Guzmán’s The Cordillera of Dreams is a haunting exploration of the cultural impact of the country’s spectacular snow-capped mountain spine. The Chilean Andes run almost the whole length of the country, geographically and figuratively separating Chile from the rest of the world. The Andes seems to act as a protector of, and a witness to, Chile’s unspeakable traumas. Setting out on a journey through the mountains to reconstruct Chile’s history, Guzmán ponders, ‘if only the Cordillera could talk, what wisdom would they impart, and what would they tell us about the past?’