‘The Message’ Review: Iván Fund’s Melancholy Road Movie Is A Meditation On Life, Death And Hope – Berlin Film Festival
deadline.comThere are shades of Peter Bogdanovich’s 1973 Depression-set comedy Paper Moon in Argentinian director Iván Fund’s melancholy road movie The Message.
Aside from crisp black-and-white cinematography and a backdrop of financial crisis, this is a film about a family of grifters profiteering from the sale of hope.
In Paper Moon this involved the sale of inscribed bibles to grieving widows desperate for a memento of their late husbands. The premise of The Message would appear to be even more callous: this ragtag trio roam the countryside with a little girl who can commune with animals, alive or dead.
But while this, on the surface, would appear to a con on a par with the Nigerian Prince phishing scam, Fund’s film is going for something altogether more spiritual than that.
Read more on deadline.com
