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Iván Fund: 'I believe that fiction is not just simply the contrary of reality, but that it is a tool to pry open that reality and render it more visible' Photo: Betania Cappato

Iván Fund's The Message (El Mensaje) invites us to take a camino on some of the less travelled roads of Argentina with a young girl and her two older guardians, as she forms a psychic connection with pets - living or dead - for their owners in return for cash. The loose black and white drama, stars young newcomer Anika Bootz alongside veterans Marcelo Subbioto and Mara Bestelli, as well as a host of four-legged and furry non-professionals. The film had its world premiere at Berlin Film Festival, where we caught up with Fund to talk about the origins of the story along with his own intuitive form of filmmaking.

How did the idea come to you to make this film?...

Iván Fund is interested in the sweet spot where the everyday meets the potential supernatural. In his previous film Dusk Stone, a monster of sorts clambered through a tale of grief. This time around the action revolves around a psychic connection with animals.

Fund reunites with his leads Marcelo Subiotto and Mara Bestelli - who are also a couple in real life - for a lighter toned road trip, although the writer/director continues to be more interested in mood than plot.

Subiotto and Bestelli play Roger and Myriam, who are driving the backroads of rural Argentina in an ageing campervan with their young granddaughter Anika. She can, apparently, form a psychic connection with pets - living or dead - revealing their thoughts. One cat owner, for example, is told their pet “feels like a failure” over a lost toy, elsewhere we’ll meet...

There are shades of Peter Bogdanovich’s 1973 Depression-set comedy Paper Moon in Argentinian director Iván Fund’s melancholy road movie The Message. Aside from crisp black-and-white cinematography and a backdrop of financial crisis, this is a film about a family of grifters profiteering from the sale of hope. In Paper Moon this involved the sale of inscribed bibles to grieving widows desperate for a memento of their late husbands. The premise of The Message would appear to be even more callous: this ragtag trio roam the countryside with a little girl who can commune with animals, alive or dead. But while this, on the surface, would appear to a con on a par with the Nigerian Prince phishing scam, Fund’s film is going for something altogether more spiritual than that.

The little girl is Anika (Anika Bootz), who travels with her guardians Myriam (Mara Bestelli) and Roger (Marcelo Subiotto...

Lots of kids would like to believe they can communicate with animals, forming a special bond that only they understand. But for the adorable little girl at the heart of director Iván Fund’s The Message (El mensaje), talking to dogs, cats, turtles, horses and all types of fauna is a moneymaking vocation, and one she exercises with plenty of tender loving care.

This minimalist oddity of a road movie follows Anika (Anika Bootz) and her caretakers, Myriam (Mara Bestelli) and Roger (Marcelo Subiotto), as they tour the Argentine countryside selling the girl’s services in “natural telepathy.” Claiming she can commune with the souls of pets, Anika relates animal “messages” — either directly or through voice mails — to owners wishing to know what Rex or Fluffy or Biscuit are actually thinking. In return, the girl and her guardians live a freewheeling #vanlife, wandering the land like an old circus troupe...

In Iván Fund’s black-and-white drama “The Message,” the commodification of the spiritual and the sterilizing of childhood wonder go hand in hand. They’re also, rather ironically, accompanied by sanitized drama, despite the movie’s emotionally potent subject matter: a young girl who allegedly communicates with the souls of people’s pets, both alive and dead.

The Argentinian countryside plays host to life on the road for an unusual trio during a period of economic downturn. Radiant, gifted pre-teen Anika (Anika Bootz) serves as a medium for animals on the brink of death, or those who have already reached the other side. Meanwhile, her opportunistic guardians Myriam (Mara Bestelli) and Roger (Marcello Subiotto) relay her messages to pet owners and negotiate payments for her readings, respectively.

There’s nothing particularly sinister about their dynamic, even though Roger occasionally wanders off in a huff, and Myriam ensures that Anika always has an intermediary,...

With festival premieres at Cannes (2010’s Los Labios in the Un Certain Regard) and Venice (2021’s Dusk Stone in the Giornate degli Autori section), Argentinean filmmaker Iván Fund steps into Golden Bear competition contention with El mensaje (The Message). In what appears to be a tender portrait about young girl (Anika Bootz) who has the ability with animals and is part of an opportunistic road-trip crew in the Argentinian countryside. In the exclusive clips we witness different kinds of negotiations that take place — via the Pov of the child and the adults (played by Mara Bestelli and Marcelo Subiotto of 2023’s Puan fame.…...

Screen can unveil the first trailer for Iván Fund’s The Message, which is set to world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

The road movie from Rita Cine and Insomnia Films follows a girl whose guardians sell her services as a psychic ‘animal communicator’ to pet owners along the dusty roads of the Argentinian countryside.

The project is Fund’s first since Dusk Stone premiered at Venice in 2021, and stars Mara Bestelli, Marcelo Subiotto, Anika Bootz and Betania Cappato.

Fund’s other films include The Lips in 2010, which won the Un Certain Regard prize for best performance.

Paris-based Luxbox has acquired the international sales rights to Iván Fund’s Berlinale Competition title “The Message” (El Mensaje).

Set in the Argentinian countryside, the film centers on a girl whose “gift pushes her opportunistic guardians to sell pet medium consultations to make a living. Whether magic or fraud, one thing is certain: the service is real – and innocence is a treasure,” according to a press statement.

The cast includes Mara Bestelli, Marcelo Subiotto, Anika Bootz and Betania Cappato, with a screenplay penned by Fund in collaboration with writer Martín Felipe Castagnet. The film’s production was spearheaded by Rita Cine alongside Insomnia Films, with Laura Mara Tablón and Gustavo Schiaffino producing from Argentino. On aboard as co-producers are Amore Cine, Blurr Stories and Panes Contenidos, from Spain, and Animista Cine, from Uruguay.

In 1984, Fund began his career as a cinematographer before transitioning to directing. His debut feature, “La Risa,...

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for the 2025 edition, running February 13-23. It’s the first official lineup overseen by new artistic director and former BFI London Film Festival leader Tricia Tuttle, who succeeds Carlo Chatrian and brings her background as an American journalist and curator to the annual German showcase. She’s also working with co-directors of programming, Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stütz, to help reposition the Berlinale’s profile among the great global film festivals and lure bigger-name filmmakers in the process.

This year’s lineup, announced Tuesday, January 21, features new films from Richard Linklater, Michel Franco, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Hong Sangsoo (“What Does That Nature Say to You”), Radu Jude (“Kontinental ’25”), and Lucile Hadžihalilović (“The Ice Tower”). Already confirmed in the mix are “Mickey 17” from Bong Joon Ho and Ira Sachs’ Sundance premiere “Peter Hujar’s Day,” plus Tom Tykwer’s “The Light” opening the festival.

Following last week’s lineup announcement, the Berlinale 2025 has now fleshed out its slate with the Competition, Special, and Perspectives sections. Highlights include the world premieres of Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon starring Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott; Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25; Hong Sangsoo’s What Does that Nature Say to You; Michel Franco’s Dreams starring Jessica Chastain; Lucile Hadžihalilović’s The Ice Tower starring Marion Cotillard; and Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s Hot Milk with Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw, and Vicky Krieps.

The festival will also include international premieres from Julia Loktev, Mary Bronstein, Kahlil Joseph, and more. In terms of omissions for films that potentially could have been a strong fit: there’s no Steven Soderberg’s Black Bag, Wes Anderson’s German production The Phoenician Scheme, nor Berlinale regular Christian Petzold, who wrapped Miroirs No. 3 only a few months ago.

Check out the lineup...

The Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the full list of titles set for its official competition alongside perspective and specials sidebars.

A total of 19 films have been selected for the international competition. It’s a buzzy selection with multiple titles that have been anticipated and boast high-profile names. Highlights include Richard Linklater’s latest feature Blue Moon, starring Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott. Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco launches his latest title Dreams in competition. The film stars Jessica Chastain, Isaac Hernández and Rupert Friend. Franco last worked with Chastain on the Venice competition title Memory.

Elsewhere, Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude lands in competition with Kontinental ’25. Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s Hot Milk starring Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw and Vicky Krieps also secures a spot alongside Hong Sangsoo’s latest What Does that Nature Say to You, and Mumblecore veteran Mary Bronstein returns as a director with If I Had Legs I’d Kick You...

The Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (Wcf) has backed seven feature projects including films from Locarno-winning Indonesian auteur Edwin and Argentinan filmmaker Ivan Fund.

Wcf’s 41st funding round has awarded €260,000 in production grants to projects from Argentina, Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Indonesia and Rwanda.

They include Sleep No More, the latest project from Indonesian auteur Edwin, whose 2021 feature Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash won the Locarno Golden Leopard award. Edwin’s 2012 film Postcards From The Zoo was also the first Indonesian film to be selected for Berlin Competition.

Sleep No More follows a Taiwanese girl...

Projects from Iván Fund, Daniel Hendler and Nayra Ilic are among the six titles selected for San Sebastian’s Wip Latam showcase, which supports Latin American films in their post-production stages.

The showcase runs from September 23 to 25, with films competing for the Wip Latam Industry award, which helps with post-production, and the Egeda Platino Industria award, worth €30,000 for the film’s main producer.

Argentinian Fund returns to San Sebastian with The Message which participated in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in 2023. The road movie follows a girl who has the ability to talk to animals, on a journey through the Argentinian countryside.