The Message (Argentina, Spain and Uruguay, 2025)
Original title: El Mensaje
Director: Iván Fund
Screenplay: Martín Felipe Castagnet and Iván Fund
Main cast: Mara Bestelli, Anika Bootz and Marcelo Subiotto
Running time: 91 minutes
Losing a pet or caring for a sick one is a very painful process. In this context, the film introduces us to Anika (Anika Bootz), a medium who can communicate with the souls of animals, whether they’re on this plane or another, and bring them messages of comfort or explanations about what’s wrong. We also meet their legal guardians, Myriam (Mara Bastelli) and Roger (Marcelo Subiotto), as they travel in a van through the Argentine countryside to deliver these messages from pets to their owners.
In this context, it must be said that the film doesn’t present solutions or resolutions, nor does it have a script with a dramatic arc. It simply presents its facts, in beautiful black and white photography, as if it were a kind of documentary about the lives of these people. There are no great tricks, haunting scenes of mediumship, or even a great variation of the melancholy that’s presented at the beginning. The biggest drama will be internal, as we wonder how much these adults are exploiting this child who we know is not their daughter, and how much this nomadic life will affect her relationships for the rest of her life.
There are many well-constructed scenes, a somewhat peculiar humor and, above all, an excellent performance by Anika Bootz. The girl has a magnetic effect on the viewer, because her gaze is difficult to decipher. We’re never sure what she’s feeling, and since she has no one to talk to, we feel the accumulation of issues going on inside her head. However, at the same time, we see that Myriam and Roger treat her with affection and, as far as possible, do what they think is best for the girl.
This is a work that, because of its simplicity, is capable of generating a lot of ambiguity. At the same time that we see the girl bringing this last joy to her guardians and having fun with her animals, we think a lot about her loneliness and the great economic crisis in Argentina. But the work also never gives space for subjects to develop, making these characters gain complexity and a life off-screen. Although it leaves plenty of space for the viewer to reflect on the tapestry of moments that make up a life, it doesn’t provide enough elements for the life portrayed on screen to occupy us for the 90 minutes of the film.
Thus, the work loses a bit of its character of immersing us in fiction, even though it makes us reflect on our own lives. Its lack of events is somewhat interesting when we think of a method for making a film, but when this method is put into practice, we end up with a rather boring and slow-paced film.
Translation by: Renata Torres
