ISLAA on Screen: Biografía de Jorge Luis Borges & El Fantasma

ISLAA is proud to support two new films that travel from the archive to the cinema. One traces Jorge Luis Borges’s life through the manuscripts, books, and places that shaped it; the other enters the world of the Argentine avant-garde alongside David Lamelas. Both began with collections and research. Now they are ready to be discovered on the big screen.

Biografía de Jorge Luis Borges

Mariano Llinás’s new film builds a portrait of Jorge Luis Borges from the pages he wrote, the books he read, and the places he visited: the story of a hidden warrior devoted to literature. The project began with a Borges collection of manuscripts, photographs, letters, drafts, and annotated pages. ISLAA commissioned and supported the film’s journey from collection to cinema.

Part investigation, part road movie, and part act of reading, the film transforms research into an adventure. At its center is Ernesto Montequín, a guide to Borges’s world, joined by a cast that includes Nicolás Helft, Laura Paredes, Milva Leonardi, and Pablo Dacal. Across three parts and more than five hours, the film invites viewers to read, travel, and wonder alongside them.

Following its international festival run, the film now arrives in Argentina, with screenings in Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires and more cities to follow, including Córdoba, Santa Fe, Santiago, and Santiago de Compostela. Find tickets and updates through the venue links below.

Argentina, 2026, 323 min, in three parts.

El Fantasma
Ignacio Masllorens & David Lamelas

In El fantasma (The Phantom), two young producers are hired to make a documentary about Rubén Santantonín, an elusive figure of the Argentine avant-garde of the 1960s. To tell his story, they turn to David Lamelas, a leading conceptual artist and longtime fellow traveler of Santantonín, who appears in the film as himself. What begins as a straightforward assignment involving interviews and archives soon becomes something more unsettling: how do you make visible someone who chose to disappear?

Co-directed by Ignacio Masllorens and David Lamelas, and produced by El Pampero Cine with Laura Citarella, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and continues to San Sebastián and the AFI Latin American Film Festival.

El fantasma grew from ISLAA’s work with the David Lamelas archive, which has supported three films: In Our Time (2018), This Is My Place in My Own Time (2023), and now El fantasma. The conversation continues at Dia Chelsea, where David Lamelas: The Machine is currently on view, bringing film, memory, and experimental art into dialogue.

Argentina, 2026, 96 min.

Upcoming film screenings

Biografía de Jorge Luis Borges

November 6–29, 2026
Golden Rooster International New Films
Xiamen, China. Session time not listed

Thursday, November 12, 2026 (learn more ↗)
3:30 PM, with Mariano Llinás in attendance
Cineclub Municipal Hugo del Carril
Córdoba, Argentina

Friday, November 13, 2026 (learn more ↗)
5:00 PM
Cineclub Municipal Hugo del Carril
Córdoba, Argentina

Saturday, November 14, 2026 (learn more ↗)
11:00 AM, 2:15 PM, and 4:00 PM
FIDOCS 30 at Sala K, Universidad Mayor
Santiago, Chile (Parts 1, 2, and 3)

Saturday, November 14, 2026 (learn more ↗)
3:30 PM
Cineclub Municipal Hugo del Carril
Córdoba, Argentina

Sunday, November 15, 2026 (learn more ↗)
4:00 PM
Cine Pixel
Adrogué, Argentina

Sunday, November 15, 2026 (learn more ↗)
5:00 PM
Cineclub Municipal Hugo del Carril
Córdoba, Argentina

Sunday, November 15, 2026 (learn more ↗)
6:00 PM
MALBA
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Monday, November 16, 2026 (learn more ↗)
3:30 PM
Cineclub Municipal Hugo del Carril
Córdoba, Argentina

Tuesday, November 17, 2026
3:00 PM, in conversation with Llinás and Montequín
Universidad Nacional del Litoral
Santa Fe, Argentina

Tuesday, November 17, 2026 (learn more ↗)
5:00 PM
Cineclub Municipal Hugo del Carril
Córdoba, Argentina

Wednesday, November 18, 2026 (learn more ↗)
3:30 PM
Cineclub Municipal Hugo del Carril
Córdoba, Argentina

Thursday, November 19, 2026 (learn more ↗)
6:00 PM
Cineuropa at NUMAX
Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Sunday, November 22, 2026 (learn more ↗)
4:00 PM
Cine Pixel
Adrogué, Argentina

Sunday, November 22, 2026 (learn more ↗)
6:00 PM
MALBA
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sunday, November 29, 2026 (learn more ↗)
4:00 PM
Cine Pixel
Adrogué, Argentina

Sunday, November 29, 2026 (learn more ↗)
6:00 PM
MALBA
Buenos Aires, Argentina

El Fantasma
Ignacio Masllorens & David Lamelas

Saturday, November 14, 2026 (learn more ↗)
6:00 PM
MALBA
Buenos Aires, Argentina


Saturday, November 21, 2026 (learn more ↗)
6:00 PM
MALBA
Buenos Aires, Argentina


Saturday, November 28, 2026 (learn more ↗)
6:00 PM
MALBA
Buenos Aires, Argentina