Direction: Gabriel Martins
Country: Brazil
Almost indifferent to Bolsonaro’s right-wing election winning, the Martins - a black lower-middle-class family of four from Minas Gerais, Brazil - struggles economically, living day by day. Wellington (Carlos Francisco), the father, is a building superintendent who has high hopes for his son, Deivinho (Cícero Lucas). He wants him to become a professional soccer player. However, the kid is only interested in astrophysics and join the Mars One project, whose main goal is to colonize Mars. His tenacious sister, Eunice (Camilla Damiao) is a law student who falls in love with a female colleague and moves into an apartment with her. The mother, Tércia (Rejane Faria), thinks she’s cursed after an abnormal episode that left her with PTSD.
After two directorial collaborations in The Devil’s Knot (2018) and In the Heart of the World (2019), Mars One signals the first feature film directed by Gabriel Martins alone. It’s also his most successful one, despite a few arguable decisions that marred its denouement. This culturally rich experience - we have samba and soccer - doesn’t hide resonant universal topics in a drama about dreams, self-discovery and family dynamics.
It’s the sincerity of the approach that keeps the film afloat at an early stage, but Mars One becomes more artificial, even melodramatic towards the end, when everything suddenly looks pink again. Even when the clouds are darker and things go wrong, the film never falls into extreme pathos and the four members of the family find the strength to fix things properly with the support of one another. On that premise, in a tender and obvious way, Martins delivers a valid message about family ties, acceptance, and hope in better days.
