Rookie Spanish Filmmaker Gambles with 'Intacto' by Ky N. Nguyen ìIntactoî writer-director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo recalled the events of March 27, 1977, in his Santa Cruz de Tenerife in Spainís Canary Islands. ìFor the first time ever, our car broke down, just outside the entrance to the airport. I got out and saw the cloud of dark smoke illuminated by the airport lights. I couldnít see anything, but there was a sour smell in the air. I felt like a spectator standing outside a stadium without tickets to a soccer match. Two civilian guards came over to assist us. I remember my mother asking them what had occurred at the airport, while my father was completely silent.î After two 747 planes collided, 578 people died in the worst accident in aviation history. Fresnadillo continued, ìI think it was that exact moment that gave birth to ëIntacto.í It must have been due to my fatherís silence, my motherís curiosity, and the guards retelling of the events of luck and death. They were unaware that a nine-year-old boy was registering everything in his mind Ö just as a survivor captures an event that almost killed him with a video camera.î Fresnadilloís earlier short ìEsposados (Linked)î was nominated for the Best Live Act ion Short Film Oscar in 1997 and won more than 40 international awards. ìVarietyî named him one of the Top 10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2002. For ìIntacto,î he won Best New Director at Spainís Goya Awards. I spoke by phone with the Spanish filmmaker when he was in New York promoting the movie. ìThe film is basically centered around Tomas, a thief who has the good luck to survive a plane crash and the bad luck of being caught. We examine the difference between good and bad luck, and how the two can sometimes be confused or merge into one another,î explained Fresnadillo. ìMax [von Sydow] was able to condense the theme of the film into one question, ëWhat do you do with undeserved luck?íî The legendary Swedish actor plays Sam, a Holocaust survivor and reclusive casino owner known as the God of Chance. For 30 years, the guilt-ridden Sam has consistently won duels of Russian rouletteówith bullets loaded in five of the gun barrelís six chambers. Fresnadillo, co-writer Andres Koppel and executive producers Fernando Bovaira and Enrique Lopez Lavigne created the character of Sam based on Holocaust survivor Primo Leviís works dealing with the themes of ìsurvivor guiltî and ìundeserved luck.î Samís casino resides in Tamagana, also part of the Canary Islands. ìItís appropriate that the film begins and ends in Tamagana, in the middle of nowhere, a volcanic valley, the home of Sam, where everyone comes to find the answers to life,î said Fresnadillo. ìI think that ëIntactoí is a thriller with a bit of fable,î the director noted. ìIt was very important for us to make the story universal, and it was one of the premises that we stuck to when Andres Koppel and I started to write the script. We wanted the film to be understood and viewed anywhere, and have everyone be able to identify with the story.î Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.