Skip to main content
The Message film image; woman standing in a field of tall grass looking at an adorable capybara

The Message

El Mensaje

Panorama

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

A young girl’s gift for communicating with animals both alive and dead makes her a considerable asset to her guardians, who traverse the Argentinian countryside providing assistance to pet-owners in need. But despite their best efforts to keep her happy and comfortable, the child gets restless as the trio’s journey rolls on.

Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize at this year’s Berlinale, Iván Fund’s moving road drama is as pointed as it is improvisational, quietly observing the travelers’ mundane rhythms and moments of camaraderie while disguising any suggestion of unseen forces at play. In its gentle explorations of the characters’ unusual lifestyle, the supernatural remains on the periphery, a presence as ordinary as losing milk teeth. Nevertheless, the otherworldly is reflected in the still, silent interactions with the animals, and foregrounded by the elegant black and white photography and a haunting trumpet theme.

 

Silver Bear Jury Prize, Berlinale 2025

Oct 3 & 4: Q&A

Director
Cast

Mara Bestelli, Marcelo Subiotto, Anika Bootz, Betania Cappato

Credits
Country of Origin

Argentina/Spain/Uruguay

Year

2025

Language

In Spanish with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+

At International Village

19+

At Fifth Avenue

91 min
Award Winners Drama Family Relations
Rita Cine, Insomnia Films

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Laura Mara Tablón

Producer

Iván Fund, Laura Mara Tablón, Gustavo Schiaffino

Screenwriter

Iván Fund, Martín Felipe Castagnet

Cinematography

Gustavo Schiaffino

Editor

Iván Fund

Production Design

Adrián Suárez

Original Music

Mauro Mourelos

Iván Fund headshot

Iván Fund

Born 1984 in San Cristóbal, Argentina, Fund is a director of his own works as well as a screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, and editor. His films have screened and been awarded at film festivals that include Cannes (Un Certain Regard), Venice, Berlinale, San Sebastian, Rotterdam, Viennale, BFI London, Busan, Havana, Neighboring Scenes at Lincoln Center, Lima, and Mar del Plata, among others. His latest film, The Message, participated in San Sebastian’s WIP Latam 2024 and premiered in the Official Competition of Berlinale 2025.

Filmography: The Lips (2010); Today I Felt No Fear (2011); The Amazement (2014); Toublanc (2017); Soft Rains Will Come (2018); Dusk Stone (2021)

Photo by Betania Cappato

 

Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre

Possible Love
Possible Love film image; four people standing in a road looking at something

Possible Love

Dir. Lee Chang-dong
164 min

Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Once Upon a Time in Harlem

Dir. William Greaves, David Greaves
100 min

Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Secret in Their Eyes

Dir. Juan José Campanella
129 min

This month's Talking Pictures screening is a multi-layered, poignant thriller interweaving the personal lives of a prosecution investigator (Ricardo Darin) and a judge, with a manhunt spanning twenty-five years. Stay for cookies, coffee and a chat after!

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Haunting

Dir. Robert Wise
112 min

Directed by Robert Wise in 1963, The Haunting is a classic exercise in the suggestive power of cinema, adapted from Shirley Jackson's 1959 best-seller, The Haunting of Hill House, a provocative blend of supernatural and psychological horror.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Poltergeist

Dir. Tobe Hooper
114 min

A suburban California family is terrorized by ghosts in the machine — the machine in question being the TV set.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Fly

Dir. David Cronenberg
96 min

Jeff Goldblum is a scientist working on teleportation (and getting Geena Davis into the sack). But there's a fly in the ointment.... Cronenberg's 1986 horror hit is both stomach-churning and heartbreaking.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre