Chance and Happenstance, the World Premiere of the Spanish Film 3:19 
by Felicia Tomasko
On a whim, we walked into one of the screenings of the world premiere of 3:19. The danger is that this story could be depressing. After all, it takes its title from the Genesis passage ending “for dust you are and to dust you will return.” One 26-year-old member of a trio of friends is dying of terminal cancer. While this story of friendship, love and loss could conceivably be dark and mournful, director Dany Saadia has created a film with a delightful message. He asks: What happens when a series of circumstances, based on chance, manage to meet someone. When a cascade of events must all happen simultaneously for something to occur, the event must be significant. This is premise on which the story is based. And there is the question: is chance really chance?

In an effective unfolding of the narrative story interspersed with animated digressions into mathematics (the story of mathematician Galois, for instance) and random events, we are completely won over by the story. In the detail of both the animated segments (Saadia reported that he chose contemporary classical music to accompany the scientists' stories) and the dramatic narrative, Saadia's attention to detail creates an exquisite mood. In one of the film's most poignant scenes, one in which there is a direct return of dust to dust, the red flags embossed with the Hebrew names of the characters flutter in the wind.

A recurring theme in the film is this meditation on chance, with different characters reading the same passage in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, about the coming together of two characters, unexpectedly. This is the genesis of the love story at the height of 3:19, the love story that we nearly stumble upon.

3:19, the first feature by Saadia, deserves to be seen. My viewing was during the film's third public showing, where the enraptured audience kept asking questions after the screening. Look for it as it plays in Europe and (hopefully) enjoys a greater release.