El mensaje

Synopsis

Amid an economic downturn, a nine-year-old girl who can communicate telepathically with animals is taken by her profit-driven guardians on a trip through the Argentine countryside to work as a medium, offering to connect people with the souls of their pets. As they travel the rural roads of Entre Ríos in a motorhome on their way to visit the girl’s mother, the group soon find they must face their own struggle to communicate.

A minimal and contemplative road movie, shot in black and white, that tells a fable about the loss of innocence, the ties that bind and the need to believe. Ever so slowly, and without ever judging its characters, Iván Fund captures the simple beauty of nature and the complexity of affections.

Biography and Films

Iván Fund (San Cristóbal, Argentina, 1984) is a filmmaker and screenwriter. Self-taught, he honed his craft in short films before making his debut with La risa (2009), with which he competed at BAFICI. With Los labios (2010), codirected with Santiago Loza, he won the Best Actress award in Un Certain Regard, Cannes. This was followed by Hoy no tuve miedo (2011), Best Cinematography at BAFICI; Me perdí hace una semana (2012); Toublanc (2017) and Vendrán lluvias suaves (2018), Special Jury Prize at BAFICI. He has co-directed documentaries such as Ab (2013, with Andreas Koefoed) and El asombro (2014, with Loza and Lorena Moriconi). Piedra noche (2021) premiered at the Giornate degli Autori in Venice after winning the WIP Latam Industry Award 2020. El mensaje is his most recent feature film, selected for the San Sebastián Co-production Forum 2023, and won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale 2025.