Intacto

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's first film rests on a single idea: luck is a transferable substance. A lucky person's luck can be taken by the touch of a luckier one, and a small group of people who know this compete to establish who is luckiest of all. The contests themselves are the strongest part. Blindfolded people made to run through a dense forest, bets placed on which person an insect crossing a table will choose, roulette with a single round. All of them lethal, all presented quietly. Leonardo Sbaraglia plays the sole survivor of a plane crash and Max von Sydow the figure who survived a concentration camp and has not been beaten since. Von Sydow's character lifts the premise out of the realm of a game and into a moral problem: is survival a virtue, or a share taken from someone else? The film won best film and best screenplay at Fantasporto in 2003. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish thrillers built on an original conceit. Who it is not for: anyone who will find the idea too abstract, or who needs to bond with the characters.