Fifty-one years after the tragedy in the Andes, director Juan Antonio Bayona tells the story again in The Circle of Snows. For the sake of realism, the film was created with the help of sixteen survivors. Through hundreds of hours of taped interviews, they shared their memories to make the film as faithful as possible.
Certain events in the film raise many questions, some of them of a medical nature. To find answers, AlloCiné contacted expert Waël Houhou, emergency physician and co-founder. Hiking Survival CareA company that provides medical training to hikers and survivors.
How long can you live without eating?
Dr. Wael Hohoe: We can go three weeks without food and three days without drinking. After ten days, according to the reserves of our body, the body self-digests. That is, we overlook what is least important in order to survive what is most important to us. We’ll touch on sugar, fat, and then all the muscles. This is called muscle wasting. Malnourished people have no more fat, no more muscle, because the body uses muscle to support the major organs, namely the heart and brain.
If this is prolonged, there are cases of extreme autophagy. Thus, the body absorbs its own unwanted organs in the short term. For example, the liver or pancreas can be swallowed to continue feeding the brain, which is the main organ of the body.
Do we lose weight faster in the cold?
Dr. Wael Hohoe: Yes. There is something called homeostasis of the body. Our proteins have an optimal temperature to function properly. The human body is between 36 and 38 degrees. So whatever the environment, our body must remain at the same temperature.
During hypothermia, the body must remain at room temperature. This is where the excitement comes in. Shivering is an involuntary, repetitive muscle contraction that requires a lot of calories. Shivering depletes our energy reserves, so we shrink our cells, our proteins, to keep shivering. Since this requires energy, we immediately reach the fat stores.
At what temperature can you freeze to death?
Dr. Wael Hohoe: When the body is below 28 degrees. Between 32 and 28 degrees, we no longer have the necessary energy and muscle connection, so we stop shivering. Below 28 degrees, this is cardiac arrest. From 32 degrees, the body stops. We breathe slowly, everything slows down. Heart rate drops below 60 beats per minute, we breathe once every 6.7 seconds. It has a name: bradycardia. Then we fall into a coma and have a cardiac arrest.
The outside temperature ultimately doesn’t matter. It is not the temperature that matters, but the average concentration. In water, for example, there are many particles, so we will be more in contact with the cold. We often use the example of the Titanic. Being in water at 5 degrees for five minutes can be much more dramatic than spending 5 hours outside at zero degrees.
Why does the urine turn brown in the movie?
Dr. Wael Hohoe: Urine becomes more and more concentrated in case of dehydration. The ureter is the kidney that filters the blood. Blood is constantly passing through the kidney. When you’re dehydrated, the kidney tells itself it needs to conserve as much water as possible to produce very little urine, but your body still produces waste products, especially urea and bilirubin, which are products of blood breakdown.
Red blood cells have a lifespan of 100 days, and when they die, they are waste products that the body must eliminate. That’s why urine is yellow. So when you’re not drinking, you still have to be able to get rid of that waste, and so your urine becomes more concentrated and can be darker in color.
Comments collected by Thomas Desroches on January 10, 2024.
Snow Circle is available on Netflix.
Source: Allocine
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
