MARS ONE
Director: Gabriel Martins | 115 min | Brazil | 2022
The Martins are optimistic dreamers, quietly leading their lives on the margins of a major Brazilian city following the disappointing election of a far-right extremist president.
A lower-middle-class Black family, they feel the strain of their new reality as the political dust settles. Tércia, the mother, reinterprets her world after an unexpected encounter leaves her wondering if she’s cursed. Her husband, Wellington, puts all of his hopes into the soccer career of their son, Deivinho, who reluctantly follows his father’s ambitions despite secretly aspiring to study astrophysics and colonize Mars.
Meanwhile, their older daughter, Eunice, falls in love with a free-spirited young woman and ponders whether it’s time to leave home.
Grand Jury Prize Winner for Best Narrative Feature at LA Outfest and Nashville International Film Festival.
Audience Award Winner for Best Feature at the 2022 San Francisco International Film Festival
MARS ONE is Brazil’s entry for Best International Film for the 2023 Academy Awards.
Director’s statement:
Mars One was developed during a very challenging time for Brazil, between 2015 and 2018, when there were several abrupt changes in the social and political landscape. Various structural movements in Brazil and the wider world made us confront what we already knew about gender, race, economics, and many other aspects of society; in my opinion, most films and TV shows are just beginning to grapple with these issues. We produced the film through a fund for Black directors and that always brought me a responsibility to speak from the heart, with honesty and understanding that this film could be a strong representation of a culture that I’m part of. When I got this opportunity I felt, despite the weight on my shoulders, a very strong sense of joy because of how cinema can build dreams. It is a film, after all, about looking up.
Preceded by the short film:
YOU’RE ALRIGHT HUN
Directed by: Katie-Ann McDonough | 5 min | Ireland | 2022
Orla is riding the brink caring for her terminally ill Dad, Darragh. While waiting in the pharmacy for his pain medicine, all hell breaks loose when Orla's ex-girlfriend shows up to return a potted succulent.
