Lucrecia Martel has finished the script for Gente, the working title of her next feature film, a science fiction story that will move away from dystopian themes and traditional narrative structures. The Argentine filmmaker confirmed that the screenplay is complete in an interview with El País, in which she shared some details about the project and expressed her ambition to make a film that can reach a wide audience.

“I already have the script. It’s a science fiction film that won’t be dystopian and won’t have a classical narrative,” Martel said, describing her next project as a mainstream production. “A mainstream film that will be a huge box-office success,” she added ironically, before acknowledging that there is an element of wishful thinking behind that ambition: “Crazy dreams, as the tango goes.” For now, the director has not revealed any details about the plot or specified when filming will begin.

The announcement comes after Our Land (Nuestra tierra, 2025), her documentary about the Indigenous community of Chuschagasta in Tucumán, Argentina, and the 2009 murder of Javier Chocobar. The film was the result of fourteen years of research and explores conflicts over land, memory, and the survival of Indigenous communities in a country shaped by racism and historical silencing. With her new project, Martel will return to fiction following Zama (2017), her adaptation of the novel by Antonio Di Benedetto.

In her interview with El País, the filmmaker also reflected on her current professional life and her relationship with cinema. “Now I’m more of a preacher than a director,” she said, referring to the talks, lectures, and public conversations she has been giving, several of which are connected to the ideas explored in Un destino común, published by Caja Negra. In the book, she reflects on cinema’s possibilities and its relationship with society, a concern that runs through both her films and her public interventions.

Martel argued that the present moment calls for a renewed recognition of cinema’s ability to shape how we understand the world. “In my almost 60 years, I’ve never thought there was a better time for cinema. Not for entertainment, but for cinema. This is its moment,” she said. She also emphasized the importance of preserving spaces for conversation in an increasingly polarized political and social climate.

Born in Salta in 1966, Martel gained international recognition with her debut feature, La ciénaga (2001), and went on to establish one of the most distinctive filmographies in Argentine cinema with titles such as The Holy Girl (La niña santa, 2004), The Headless Woman (La mujer sin cabeza, 2008), and Zama. Her work is characterized by a singular exploration of sound, family relationships, power structures, and social tensions. Although specific details about Gente remain undisclosed, Martel has made clear that her next film will depart from dystopian science fiction and conventional storytelling, pointing toward another formal exploration in her cinema.