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If you told me that the director Gabriel Martins thought exclusively in images, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Mars One, his gracefully composed observation of a working-class Brazilian family, is littered with arresting shots. Take the one of Tércia, the matriarch played by Rejane Faria, cleaning a window: Her curly mop of bleached blonde hair remains static as her right hand slides across the glass, her back muscles flexing in response to the laborious task. Or the scene of her daughter Eunice (Camilla Damião) consummating her love with her girlfriend on the floor of an empty penthouse apartment. Her dark skin gleams against the sharp, white-tiled floor as the baby-blue colored braids of her lover slither across her skin. These scenes are occasions — charged flashes of the director’s loving preoccupation with his story. And who wouldn’t be obsessed with such a humane, well-calibrated tale?

Mars One, which premiered...

There’s a strange synchronicity in watching writer-director Gabriel Martins’ latest feature “Mars One” as Brazil rejoices in the recent re-election of Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva for a third term. The bittersweet film, in theaters and on Netflix now via Ava DuVernay’s distribution label Array, begins just as rightwing politician Jair Bolsonaro was elected in late 2018.

But for the working-class family at its center, the macro changes in the spheres of government don’t much register while they struggle to stay financially afloat. Bolsonaro’s election and inauguration play in the background of their everyday lives without any of the characters ever acknowledging or engaging with the results. Not only are they from a lower socioeconomic status, but they are Black in a still racist society, like most in Latin America.

By slowly introducing each of the four family members’ individual concerns in a mostly seamless manner (even...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Il Buco (Michelangelo Frammartino)

With Il Buco, Michelangelo Frammartino returns to the Calabrian countryside 12 years after Le Quattro Volte. Oscillating between a shepherd slowly dying and a nearby cave-diving expedition, Frammartino and cinematographer Renata Berta capture the movement inside their static frames with elegance. A soccer ball is kicked back and forth over the cave entrance, upping the stakes of an errant kick, burning magazine pages float down into the darkness illuminating the cave depths for the explorers and the audience—Il Buco is an experiential ode to death as the final frontier. – Caleb H.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Contemporary Japan

A new series focusing on recent(ish) Japanese cinema features exclusive streaming homes for films by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hirokazu Koreeda,...

Sometimes, the simplest stories are the most monumental. A boy wants to be an astronaut, a girl falls in love, a father lives out his dreams through his son. This is the stuff of life — nothing more, nothing less. Watching a film like “Mars One,” from Brazilian filmmaker Gabriel Martins, is a humbling experience. Why over-complicate this storytelling business when a gifted storyteller can make such moving magic out of everyday experiences?

Set in the wake of the election of Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, “Mars One” follows a single working-class family as they long for more, love each other, self-reflect, and struggle to make ends meet. Where a lesser film might pick one character to focus on, “Mars One” All relatable, flawed, and charming in their own ways, they antagonize each other without anyone losing their humanity.

Martins strikes a delicate balance that’s unusually satisfying from a narrative perspective.

Camilla Damião, Rejane Faria, Cícero Lucas and Carlos Francisco in Mars One Photo: courtesy of Array Releasing

One of last year’s festival successes, now about to be released on Netflix and in select cinemas, Gabriel Martins’ Mars One is a portrait of an ordinary Brazilian family each of whose members seems to be pulling in a different direction. There’s mother Tercia (Rejane Faria), trying to hold everything together but frustrated by the sense that life is going nowhere; father Wellington (Carlos Francisco), an alcoholic struggling to stay on the wagon and pinning all this hopes on his young son; the son, Deivinho (Cícero Lucas), who risks disappointing everyone if he gives up on his talent as a footballer to pursue his true passion, astronomy; and the older sister. Eunice (Camilla Damião), who is trying to support her brother but also to break away and start an independent life with her first girlfriend.

Mars One Trailer — Gabriel Martins‘s Mars One / Marte Um (2022) movie trailer has been released by Array Releasing. The Mars One trailer stars Cícero Lucas, Carlos Francisco, Camilla Damião, Rejane Faria, Russo Apr, and Robson Vieira. Crew Gabriel Martins wrote the screenplay for Mars One. Plot Synopsis Mars One‘s plot synopsis: “The Martins family are optimistic [...]

Continue reading: Mars One (2022) Movie Trailer: A Father Pins his Hopes on his Soccer-playing Son who Dreams of Being a Astrophysicist...

"A starry-eyed, soft-hearted Brazilian family drama." Array Releasing has revealed the new US trailer for Mars One, a Brazilian indie family drama that first premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Marte Um, as it is originally known in Portuguese, is also Brazil's Best International Film official submission to the next Academy Awards. A lower middle class Black family in Brazil undergoes a series of challenging and profound changes, reinventing themselves and their family. 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, who reluctantly follows his father's ambitions despite secretly aspiring to study astrophysics and colonize Mars. Starring Cícero Lucas, Carlos Francisco, Camilla Damião, Rejane Faria, Russo Apr, and Robson Vieira. It's a solid film, though it isn't really about Mars and has nothing to do with sci-fi,...

Brazilian drama Mars One follows the Martins family, optimistic dreamers who are quietly leading their lives on the margins of a major Brazilian city following the disappointing election of a far-right extremist president. They are a lower middle-class Black family who feels the strain of its new reality as the political dust settles.

Tercia (Rejane Faria), the mother, finds her world turned upside down after an unexpected prank where a man threatens to blow himself up in a café, leaves her wondering if she’s cursed. Her husband, Wellington (Carlos Francisco), puts all of his hopes into the soccer career of their son, Deivinho (Cícero Lucas), who reluctantly follows his father’s ambitions despite secretly aspiring to study astrophysics and colonize Mars. Meanwhile, their older daughter, Eunice (Camilla Damião), falls in love with a free-spirited young woman and ponders whether it’s time to leave home.

Related: The Contenders International...

Distributor’s reps brokered deal with Magnolia Pictures International.

Array has acquired North American rights to Gabriel Martins’ Brazilian Oscar submission Mars One, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January.

The drama will debut on select screens and on Netflix in the UK, Australia and New Zealand starting on January 5.

Mars One premiered in World Cinema Dramatic Competition and follows a lower middle-class Black family living on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte as they reconcile their dreams with the recent election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro in late 2018.

The father places his hopes in a football career for Deivinho,...

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Brazilian director, screenwriter and cinematographer Gabriel Martins has signed with CAA for representation.

Martins’ working class family drama Mars One (Marte Um) was selected as Brazil’s submission for best international feature film at the next Academy Awards, and marks the first film helmed by a Black Brazilian director to represent the South American country.

Mars One, which bowed in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, portrays a family on the margins of Belo Horizonte as they quietly reinvent themselves while reconciling themselves to life under extremist president Jair Bolsonaro in late 2018.

The Portuguese language film, which also marked Martins’ solo feature directorial debut, stars lead Rejane Faria, Cicero Lucas, Carlos Francisco and Camilla Damiao. Martins’ first feature film, In the Heart of the World, which debuted at the Rotterdam Film Festival, was written and co-directed with Maurilio Martins.

The duo also directed the short film,...