Entertainment

WARM GLOW FROM COLD TALE

DON’T be ashamed if your eyes get moist during the finale of “Stranded.” Tears are a natural reaction to this uplifting documentary recounting a miracle in the snow.

In 1972, a plane carrying young members of an Uruguayan rugby team and a few relatives crashed into the mighty, snow-covered Andes while en route to Chile.

Nearly half of the 45 aboard survived in the wreckage, but eight of them later died in an avalanche and one succumbed to his injuries.

Amazingly, 16 passengers were alive 72 days after the plane went down in difficult and remote terrain. “They smelled of the grave,” says one of the shepherds who greeted them.

The events were recounted in the 1973 book “Alive” and a subsequent movie starring Ethan Hawke.

Now Gonzalo Arijon, writer-director of “Stranded” (which carries the subtitle “I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains”), tells the story from the point of view of people who were there – survivors, relatives, rescuers.

“I felt something was going to go wrong,” one survivor recalls. “I don’t know why.”

Arijon, a childhood friend of the survivors, makes superb use of vintage photos, re-

enactments and interviews. He avoids sensationalism, even when the film gets around to the cannibalism that helped keep the survivors alive.

So powerful is “Stranded” that when the lucky few finally make their way back to civilization, you feel as thrilled as if they were your own loved ones.

STRANDED

Back from the dead.

In Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 126 minutes. Not rated (disturbing content). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue.