Ricardo Darín's new dark comedy "Therapy Done Right" ("Lo dejamos acá") world-premiered at the San Sebastián Festival this week, ahead of its worldwide Netflix release on Oct. 16. Darín produced the film through his Kenya Films and stars as a pragmatic psychoanalyst who loses faith in conventional methods and begins pushing the boundaries with his patients — until a creatively blocked writer, played by Diego Peretti, walks into his office.

Darín tapped Hernán Goldfrid, who directed him in "Thesis on a Homicide," to helm the feature. Goldfrid had also joined a writing process that began when screenwriter Emmanuel Díez delivered a rough treatment to Kenya Films.

"We received an early version of the story – a rough outline, a treatment – from our screenwriter, Emmanuel Díez, and it immediately caught our attention," Darín told Variety in an interview at the Maria Cristina Hotel in San Sebastián. "At times, it made us laugh. It also gave us a chance to laugh at ourselves a little and reflect." The three developed the script together, Darín said, though "ultimately, he was the one who really gave it its final form, because he's the director."

The film opens with Darín's character rejecting an award, stating that Argentina has the largest number of psychoanalysts in the world even as the percentage of Argentines with some form of mental health issue has doubled. Darín confirmed the figure and traced the country's psychoanalytic culture to its mixed roots. "I think it has something to do with the mix of cultures that shaped Argentina – Italians, Spaniards, Jews, Arabs, Germans… – really, a bit of everything," he said. "Argentina also embraced psychoanalysis a long time ago, and it's worked for us."

He added a caveat: "A lot of people around the world do – they just don't realize it. They think there's something else causing it." Argentina's strong university programs in psychology and sociology, he said, help explain the profession's outsized presence.

Goldfrid sees the national penchant for self-examination as the film's comic engine. "I really like the idea of laughing at ourselves while also taking a moment to reflect," the director said. "We have this tendency to dwell on our own neuroses, to reflect, to listen to our own inner voice. The film taps into that and I think that's exactly why it made us laugh. Because at the end of the day, it felt very human."

The filmmakers aimed for disruption. "What we were really looking for was disruption," Goldfrid said. "We wanted the story to constantly put you up against the unexpected." Darín's character takes that impulse to extremes — even entering patients' homes. "He takes everything to the extreme," Darín said. "At that point, it becomes crazy, completely outrageous." Goldfrid cited the character's credo: "You have to get your hands dirty."

The duo shot the film last year in Buenos Aires, where the city functions as another character. "The city runs through the film, and through the characters, and that was very important to us," Goldfrid said. Their shorthand from "Thesis on a Homicide" eased the process: "Hernán is very open and receptive. He really knows how to listen," Darín said.

Darín is currently performing Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage" on stage, closing his Madrid run this Sunday before touring the production in Argentina. Next year he will spend most of his time on Season 2 of Netflix's "The Eternaut." "No snow this time, but definitely crazier," he said.

On the Milei administration's cuts to audiovisual subsidies, Darín struck a resigned note. "Argentina is a country that's used to crises. We've had a lot of practice surviving crises. So, nothing really scares us anymore," he said. "Like in that movie 'The Party' with Peter Sellers. He's playing the bugle and people are shooting at him, but he just never dies. Well, that's us. We're Peter Sellers." With an election year approaching, how those subsidy cuts reshape Argentine film production remains the open question the industry will be watching.