The Message (El mensaje) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review

Gates of Heaven: Fund Explores Creature Comforts from Beyond

“We are not victims of the world we see, we are victims of the way we see the world,” Shirley MacLaine wrote in her 1985 memoir, Dancing in the Light, one of several publications in which the Academy Award winning actor explored her thoughts on reincarnation. It’s a sentiment which applies to the latest mysterious venture from Argentinean director Iván Fund, (The Message), a terse title which eventually reveals itself to be about interpretation, and perhaps taking what we need from the information we receive. As with several of his previous films involving children dealing with compromised adults (Soft Rains Will Come, 2018) or parents dealing with absent children (Dusk Stone, 2021), we’re left to ponder the intentions and possibilities regarding a young girl who professes to serve as an animal medium as she’s transported across an idyllic countryside.

On a seemingly never-ending tour of rural Argentina, Myriam (Mara Bestelli) and Roger (Marcelo Subiotto) offer consultations to those wishing to communicate with their pets through Anika (Anika Bootz), the child they care for. While it appears to be the only way the three of them make a living, it seems their business is far from lucrative. While they’re clearly opportunistic, they seem to share a comfortable camaraderie with Anika, who seems to enjoy corresponding with the animals, though it’s unclear if she actually believes she’s channeling their thoughts and desires or has simply been taught a specific formula with this skill, which reportedly all the women in her family possess.

Much like psychics arguably provide a similar, more affordable version of talking therapy than their medically licensed counterparts, it becomes apparent Anika’s services, whether real or not, provide a comfort to those she interacts with. Much like the lush, transportive black and white cinematography from Gustavo Schiaffino suggests, these characters are essentially a living anachronism in the modern world they canvas, their hustle seems to be a profession of diminishing returns. Dependent upon social media and various local news stations happy to interview them for random fluff pieces, they are relegated to the trajectory of the huckster, lurking on the outskirts as they encounter lonely or desperate people who are intensely connected to their pets.

Essentially a road trip movie, we glean little information about Anika’s relationship to Myriam and Roger, both who appear to be a generation too old to be her parents. Eventually, it’s revealed in a random pit stop to an isolated institution, Anika is her guardians’ grandchild. Her mother Elisa, who reportedly has the same gift, suffers from an unknown condition, but their brief reunion is a cheerful one. Eventually, it appears this woebegone trio seems to be battling their own sadness, and Anika provides them with more comfort than she likely receives. Since it’s never quite clear what Anika herself might be feeling, Mara Bestelli as Myriam becomes the human focal point, and she has a similar screen presence to someone like Stephane Audran or Marisa Paredes, fabulous in her confidence and deportment.

Their process is a curious one, with Anika providing random information from the animals she communes with, usually which sounds like garbled snatches of poetry. Myriam then attempts to interpret this information into something more vaguely cohesive, often through online services and voice texts. Roger handles the payment. While no one seems unhappy with their services, there are no intense revelations exchanged, merely affirmations which seem intended to provide the exact succor the human clients are seeking. The melancholy which hangs over this entire endeavor, underlined by a bittersweet score, makes The Message feel like a bluesy mixture of All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) and the Marjoe Gortner experience. And much like Francois Dupeyron’s underrated and enigmatic 2013 film One of a Kind (aka Mon âme par toi guérie, which translates to My Soul Healed by You), it isn’t so much about whether or not these otherworldly gifts are real, but do they provide a necessary assuagement to those trapped in a spiritual void?

Much like Andrew Haigh did with his masterful 2023 title All of Us Strangers, Fund makes significant use of the Pet Shop Boys’ 1987 classic “Always on My Mind,” itself a pop spiritual hymnal about the regretful hindsight of not bestowing the love and tenderness upon our objects of affection quite as often as we should have.

Reviewed on February 18th at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival (75th edition) – Main Competition. 91 mins.

★★★/☆☆☆☆☆