Mensaje 19 directed and written by Roberto García-Álvarez

What did Roberto García-Álvarez say about his film?

In *Mensaje 19*, the brutality of adolescence takes on the weight of tragedy. The film follows María, a sixteen-year-old girl who has become the silent target of relentless bullying. Her days are filled with taunts, humiliations, and the digital shadows of her classmates—messages, emails, audios, and videos designed to erase her dignity. At school she is invisible, at home she is not safe. The screen becomes her tormentor, every notification another wound.

The story is not one of monsters or supernatural forces, but of something far more terrifying: the cruelty born out of indifference. María’s suffering, unheard and unseen, reveals the silent violence that technology amplifies and society too often ignores. The film captures the fragile threshold where pain transforms into despair, and despair into fatal consequence.

*Mensajes 19* was conceived as both a scream and a mirror. My intention as director was to portray not only the horror of bullying, but the loneliness it breeds—the invisible scars that can be as lethal as any weapon. The aesthetic choice was deliberate: raw realism intertwined with the psychological tension of horror, where every vibration of a phone feels like the tolling of doom.

The crew worked with intensity and conviction, aware that we were not only making a film but confronting a social wound. Our young cast brought authenticity and vulnerability to the screen; behind the camera, the team embraced a minimalist style that allowed the story’s darkness to breathe.

Cinema, I believe, should disturb, awaken, and demand reflection. *Mensajes 19* seeks to give voice to those who feel voiceless, to remind us that silence is never neutral. Sometimes the most frightening messages are the ones we choose not to hear.