A girl who talks to animals – Iván Fund’s latest film stuns San Sebastián

Anika has the gift of communicating with animals, living or dead – a skill which helps her carers make money in an Argentina gripped by crisis.

This is the set-up of El mensaje ("The message"), Iván Fund’s new movie, which is in competition at the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain.

The feature film, which received financial support from San Sebastián to ensure its completion, is up for best Latin American feature at the 73rd edition of the prestigious film festival in the Basque city.

“It’s an honour, always a joy” to be at the festival, which is “the end of the movie’s natural path, since El mensaje started at San Sebastián’s Coproduction Forum two years ago and was [screened] at the Work in Progress [section] last year,” says Fund in an interview, referencing the programmes that aided his movie.

“Here’s where it all started. We’re super happy to receive the support, concrete support – even more so in the sadly well-known reality of Argentine cinema today,” the 41-year-old filmmaker pointed out.

Fund is addressing the stinging cutbacks introduced by President Javier Milei, which has plunged Argentina’s INCAA national film institute, the state body that supports production, into crisis. 

Given this situation, the festival – historically a launch pad for Latin American cinema in Europe – and its organisers have shown solidarity. Last year, a public demonstration was held to show support for Argentine cinema, while this year, three productions were shown in its Official Section and four others in the ‘Latin Horizons’ category.

“That’s why it’s so good to be here – there’s a lot of life for cinema,” said Fund.

In El mensaje, Anika is a little girl who can understand and communicate with animals. She travels in a motor home through dusty roads inside Argentina with her carers, who offer her services in exchange for money.

“One of the first images was of a character who had a special gift, a unique talent, within a context in which that was only enough to put a few pesos together to make ends meet and survive,” Fund explained, talking about the origin of the story.

The black-and-white film, which won the Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, offers few answers and rather invites the spectator to reflect and understand what they are watching.

“The idea was a ‘road trip movie,’ with a very simple structure which could lead to an invitation to the spectator to discover the characters and bonds,” the director explains.

The girl is played by Fund’s daughter. She has the same name as the star.

“It was very cute, I was conceiving and writing the film and Anika looked and me and asked me why she couldn’t be the girl,” but at the time the character was meant to be older, said the director.

“But it’s so difficult to get funding to make the movie, and filmmaking takes so long, that it ended up working in her favour! By the time production could be put together, she was the age I expected the character to be, it was very natural and organic,” he recalled.

The actors playing her guardians, Mara Bestelli and Marcelo Subiotto, have known Anika “since she was a very little girl,” said Bestelli.

“When we started shooting ... I warned Anika that I would not treat her right sometimes and she said: ‘Oh, Mara, I know.’ She was much clearer than me that we were making a film!” Bestelli recalls with a smile.

El mensaje is in the running for San Sebastián’s top prize, with 11 other productions from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay also nominated. 

The award will be presented on Saturday (September 27) at the festival’s closing gala.