SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) – Chileans got the first chance Thursday to see Hollywood’s movie about the 33 miners who captured the world’s attention by surviving trapped deep underground longer than anyone before.
“The 33” was released in Chile a day after the fifth anniversary of the mine collapse. Spanish actor Antonio Banderas and French actress Juliette Binoche star in the film that dramatizes the disaster in the Atacama desert and the miners’ globally televised rescue.
As the movie credits rolled at a movie theater in Santiago, Alejandro Harriet and his young sons Diego and Juan began clapping.
“It’s now my favorite movie because this was a real story and it was done here in Chile,” Diego said.
Banderas stars as Mario Sepulveda, nicknamed “Super Mario,” who became the public face of the miners. Binoche plays Maria Segovia, the sister of a miner who became known for her outgoing personality as “the mayor” of the makeshift settlement that rose outside the mine.