La Fortuna

"La Cultura es nuestro petróleo." Culture is our oil (meaning as a natural resource).

Written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar adapted from the graphic novel, El tesoro del Cisne Negro by Guillermo Corral and Paco Roca. This was my first graphic novel and I have to say that as a novel, it's stupid, but as the basis for a movie, it's brilliant. Amenábar must have thought he hit the lottery with this as it's like someone already story-boarded the entire series for him.

The negative reviews here seem to be from people taking offense that there are some jabs taken at the USA. I'm American, but I'm also very thick-skinned and not easily insulted. I always say the same thing, any America who thinks that they rest of the world has to think we are the greatest is being a child, and the rest of the world has to realize that as the leading power in the world, there have been much worse in history than the USA.

Back to La Fortuna. This is one of the best, if not THE best Spanish series that I have seen. It definitely has the best acting, and for good and bad acting, I always put the blame or the praise on the director. It is the director's project, so if someone gives a bad performance, that's on the director. Chapeau to Amenábar.

My Review - La Fortuna Streaming on SBS on Demand My Rating 7.5 /10

I really enjoyed La Fortuna a Spanish/American 6 part series written and Directed by Alejandro Amenábar who also has directed or written movies like Vanilla Sky the Sea Inside and The Others which I also enjoyed .

Produced by Movistar+ in Europe, La Fortuna is a contemporary adventure Pirate and treasure hunt tale with film locations in Spain in near Madrid and Atlanta in the U. S. A.

One of the only 2 actors who were familiar to me in this series was Stanley Tucci who always delivers and is terrific in the role of Frank Wild an underwater salvage millionaire who discovers the long lost wreck of a Spanish Ship La Fortuna off the coast of Spain near Gibraltar that was sunk by The British in 1805 .

Frank Wild and his team plunder the treasure and disturb the remains of the La Fortuna wreck to recover it's valuable bounty of thousands of Spanish gold coins and artefacts .

They of course claim ownership for Frank Wild's company Atlantis and return with the treasure to the United States.

The only other actor familiar to me in La Fortuna was Clarke Peters who plays Jonas Pierce an attorney who takes on the task on behalf of the Spanish Government Department of Culture to reclaim the treasure and return it to the country that La Fortuna was returning to before it was sunk losing its 200 passengers and crew as well as its cargo .

The rest of the cast are predominantly Spanish and all give terrific performances including two very charismatic young Spanish actors Álvaro Mel who plays Alex Ventura and Ana Polvorosa who stars as Alex Ventura's colleague and eventual romantic interest and fellow adventurer Lucia Vallarta.

Álvaro Mel I've since found out is a 26 year old Spanish Instagram Star, YouTube Star, Social Media Star, Fashion Influencer, Model & Television Actor and a very impressive actor that I'll watch out for in future movies.

Ana Polvorosa, is a Spanish film, theatre and television actress and she also impressed me greatly in her role as Lucia Vallarta a Public Servant assigned to assist Alex Ventura navigate the American Legal system in obtaining the treasure out of the hands of Frank Wilde and back to Spain.

Together both Alex and Lucia gradually become the prominent characters in the show because of their vitally important career assignment to travel together to the USA and assist in the retrieval of the treasure from La Fortuna and of course they form a deep emotional attachment for each other in spite of their many differences.

Alex is a young and inexperienced diplomat, who inadvertently becomes the leader of the mission to recover the undersea treasure stolen by adventurer Frank Wild.

Lucia is his more mature radical outspoken and attractive colleague who at first clashes with Alex's clean cut suit and tie conservative style.

All the ensemble cast are impressive in this series La Fortuna and I would have given it an 8 if the conclusion was better .

In my view it did get a little frantic and seemed to go unnecessarily off course in the last episode but all in all a great viewing experience.

For those who criticise this series should do some background research before making a knee jerk reaction search for Odyssey who plundered Spanish gold in silver coins in the same nautical area near Gibraltar and living in Andalucía I witnessed the true story unfold.

La Fortuna is an international co-production inspired by the comic book by Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral and which , in turn , was based on real events and while capturing very well the aroma and spirit of adventure . A magnificent series that brings taste for adventure , thriller and action , as well as dealing with the recovery of Spanish heritage . La Fortuna is the title that gives its name to the series and the ship . The story tells how a young and inexperienced diplomat inadvertently becomes the leader of a mission that will test all of his convictions and along with an obstinate state official : Ana Polvorosa set out to recover the heritage stolen by a treasure hunter from the wreck of a Spanish frigate sunk in the Strait of Gibraltar by English ships . While Stanley Tucci plays an adventurer named Frank Wild who travels all around the world looting the heritage of the sea deep . He believes that if it were not he who rescued everything of value from the found wrecks from oblivion , no one else would carry out such a hard undertaking . He likes to think that the real treasure is not money, but to fulfill a dream. The dream of those who lost their lives along with the valuable cargo.

A series packed with adventures about an unique treasure and a pirate story , too , in which a young diplomat attempts to recover the undersea treasure stolen by adventurer . And being paced from the point of view of two realities : the Latin or Mediterranean and the American . An unreal, but true story at the same time, in which the brave starring will have to face harsh and complex obstacles , including a real critique to Spanish bureaucracy, . There are the twisted obstacles that they put from the treasure hunting company that has taken the treasure , and then, the administration's own obstacles , lack of infrastructure , lack of budget , lack of investigation and no coordination . As Amenabar depicts the Spanish reality , and the Spanish bureaucratic reality, and those of us who have suffered it , developing the events with a certain humor and it results to be well shown . Amenabar often to be guided by the genres and in this case it was an adventure thriller with a lot of humor , but as usual he has to make a particular transformation about it . And outstanding the adventure component that always fascinates Amenábar. But here the antiheroes or pirates do not wear a patch or peg leg , that's why the modern, hypertechnological pirates are nowadays dedicated to looting with machines that can reach tremendous depths . And then, the new heroes are not swordsmen , as they turn out to be officials of the Ministry of Culture that have to recover a robbed treasure , though its is anything else a treasure, in fact, it is culture itself , it is cultural heritage and along the way describing the Spanish reality and the Spanish bureaucratic ways .

An adventure thriller with a moving and exciting score by Roque Baños, being stunningly played by a great cast of the most diverse actors as national as international . Among the Spanish people we find the newcomer Álvaro Mel as the stubborn young diplomat , Ana Polvorosa as the wayward , determined state official , Manolo Solo , Blanca Portillo, Pedro Casablanc , Juan Carlos Vellido and Karra Elejalde as a peculiar Minister . And from the international level , the famed director hired famous faces of North American cinema such as Stanley Tucci, T'Nia Miller and Clarke Peters as a prestigious advocate at law , all of them integrated perfectly and gave themselves to the team with an extraordinary willingness to understand each other. The series, although it takes place in the United States and Spain, has been filmed almost entirely in Spain. Colorfully photographed by cameraman Alex Catalán on location in Ferrol, A Coruña, Galicia, Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha, La Línea de la Concepción,Rota, Cádiz, Andalucía, Pasaia, Gipuzkoa, Bay of Biscay, Basque Country, Zaragoza, Aragón, Moncloa, Madrid.

Today, Alejandro Amenábar carries out a recent great production , but not as a new film, but with the first series that has compellingly made, plenty of enthusiasm , intelligence and exuding an optimistic air . Presented at the San Sebastián Film Festival, it is the perfect show to engage and greatly entertain the viewer. This great adventure series in six episodes was competently directed by Alejandro Amenabar . As the cinema broke into his life when he was just a child and he played to tell stories to which he later added his own music. Now, a few years later, he holds nine Goya awards and an Academy Award , among many others.

Well, some of the reviews for this are laughable and borderline racist. The Brits and the Yanks decry it as a pathetic pack of lies, insulting their national pride, while the rest see it as a decent bit of entertainment, based on a comic book.

The facts of the period are indisputable: the British, as they had been for 300 years, treated the oceans as their own private kingdom, seizing ships or sinking them on their whim. This is historical FACT, whether the Brits like it or not.

What is also historical fact is that a number of modern-day US 'pirates' roam the oceans looking for such buried treasure and then a way to keep it for their own enrichment, ignoring the history and nationality of the treasure concerned.

This series sets up a nice battle between the good (the Spanish) and the bad (the Yanks/Brits). It's quite entertaining and the production is good, especially the historical scenes when we see how La Fortuna was sunk.

Make up your own mind and ignore the screaming reviews.