Secuestro Express

Directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz

Venezuelan director/writer Jonathan Jakubowicz based Secuestro Express ("Kidnap Express") on his own abduction several years ago by thugs who held him captive for 45 petrifying minutes while they raced around Caracas, stopping at banks with ATMs, emptying his accounts.

"It felt like eternity. I had heightened awareness without sensing time," says 26-year-old Jakubowicz. "They didn't demand ransom-unlike most barrio gangs who grab rich kids, holding them long enough for their parents to amass and pay a 'reasonable' amount. Express kidnapping is an industry in Latin America. It's tearing society apart."

Juxtaposing gritty, handheld "documentary" cinematography like that used in Traffic with highly stylized staccato camera moves like those throughout Snatch, Jakubowicz visually nails the victims' nightmarish anguish, while illustrating brutal, perilous, explosive aspects of Caracas' urban culture.

In the film, rich kids Martin and Carla (Mia Maestro is brilliant) are kidnapped by a terrorizing triumvirate (convincingly covered by Venezuelan rap stars: Carlos Julio Molina, Pedro Perez and Carlos Madera), and taken on a terrifying tour of Caracas' seamier settings (drug dens, garbage-strewn schoolyards, decaying dwellings), while Carla's father arranges to pay $20,000 in ransom.

"$20,000 isn't much for a rich Caraqueno, but it's almost five years of the Venezuelan minimum wage," says Jakubowicz. "But even if ransom is paid, there's no guarantee kids will make it home unharmed."

Jakubowicz originally planned to make it a short feature. Transformation into the larger project began when he convened rappers Molina, Perez and Madera, asking them to contribute the hip-hop-style music they call "salso," their signature spin on the rap-heavy salsa now charting in Latin America and breaking in Miami.

"They weren't actors, but they wanted to play the kidnappers. So, I had them improvise on camera. They were so frightening, my hands were shaking-you can see it on the video I shot," Jakubowicz says. "They're ghetto kids who've struggled with misery, violence, injustice and hunger-they make it real."

Feature-length Secuestro Express gathered momentum when producer Elizabeth Avellan (Spy Kids, among others) committed to covering post-production, if Jakubowicz raised initial production funds. Using her endorsement letter, he was able to do so.

Secuestro Express cost about $400,000 (or almost 100 years of the Venezuelan minimum wage) to make and is, to date, the only Venezuelan-made feature film to turn a profit. Opening August 5 at Angelika Film Center, 18 W. Houston St. (betw. B'way & Mercer St.), 212-995-2000.

-Jennifer Merin