JONATHAN JAKUBOWICZ was barely out of his teens when a gang of car-jackers put a gun to his head and kidnapped him and a friend as they drove home through a middle-class neighbourhood of Caracas five years ago.
Forty-five minutes later, the two young men were left dumped by the roadside wearing only their underwear, relieved of their car, clothes and the contents of their bank accounts - but lucky to escape with their lives.
Jakubowicz had just become another statistic in the crime wave that has engulfed Venezuela's capital over the past decade amid political and social upheaval in the oil-rich nation once known fondly as the Saudi Arabia of South America.
Crime, and specifically kidnapping, has spiralled, with the reported figures of abductions rocketing from 51 in 1995 to 296 in 2003. The real figure is probably vastly higher - most victims' families prefer not to involve authorities.
The kidnapping scourge of which he had terrifying first-hand experience has provided Jakubowicz with the inspiration for his stylish directorial feature debut, Secuestro Express (Kidnap Express).
The movie tells the story of a young couple's nightmare as they careen through the underbelly of Caracas in the hands of three thugs who've made them their latest payday, demanding US$20,000 in ransom from the couple's parents.
