Mars One

Completely in love with this genre of films that mix science fiction, drama, raw reality (community, violence, brotherhood), a new aspect of national cinema, with an unparalleled identification, a faithful and generous portrait, which escapes the global Leblon... A strong film, with stupendous and natural performances (most with little or no experience in cinema) that touches us deeply, moves us and enchants us, we feel part of the family, simple, captivating, delicate and passionate... Wonderful...

A black family from the outskirts of Contagem, Minas Gerais, seeks to follow their dreams in a country that has just elected as president a far-right man, who represents the opposite of everything they are.

The film shows the daily life of a family from the outskirts, in the last months of 2018, shortly after the presidential elections. The boy Deivid, the youngest of the Martins family, dreams of being an astrophysicist and participating in a mission that will colonize the red planet in 2030. Living on the outskirts of a large urban center, there are few opportunities for this, but he still doesn't give up. He spends hours watching videos and lectures about astronomy on the internet.

His father is a doorman in an elite building and has not had a drink for a long time, a fact he proudly shares in Alcoholics Anonymous sessions. Tércia is the matriarch who, after an incident involving a TV prank, believes she is suffering from a curse. Finally, the eldest daughter is Eunice, who wants to move into an apartment with her girlfriend but doesn't have the courage to tell her parents.

The Brazilian movies that become international rarely show a view of their middle class. We can almost see the middle class subdivision.

Brasil is a country with a very open mind and mentality were tabus almost don't exist. Exept when you are talking about football.

This movie is not just the power of dreams but the clash beetween diferent dreams were diferent but similar personalities interact. The past the present and the future that help to build that dreams showing how much the world changed in 3 generations.

In a overcrowed society the ammount of good people looks like a miracle.

Everything somehow fits perfectly on the narrative and in the end felt that, if this was a 5 hour movie I still want to watch a little bit more.

Brilliant.

This movie is a clear example of how rich Brazilians that live in other countries their whole life and barely ever go to Brazil see the country they are supposedly from. This is a ridiculous bag of political propaganda from a POV that says nothing about Brazil other than how rich and favored Brazilians love to dramatize their country from afar. And how they love to talk about realities they have no idea of. This is not a movie. This is an excuse to make political propaganda against a democratic elected President. Do not waste your time watching it.

The movie tells NOTHING about the Brazilian middle class. To begin with most of Brazilian middle class was in favor of the last president. It is ridiculous how Brazil's "intellectual elite" exploit their favored position to sell a completely fake idea of what was happening in the country. Democracy was well as strong and the country was thriving.

These "directors" were just angry because most of the public money they used to travel around the world was cut. It is a sad reality when a country has its artistic class so depended and immorally linked to a political party that they are unable to create anything independent that could ever be considered real art. Sad. That is why Brazil will never have good movies other than some few accidental works that end up making sense (usually against their original intent - such as Tropa de Elite).

Dramatising the social upheaval among Brazil's poor while their country teeters on the edge of democracy, Mars One paints a fascinating portrait of a lower-middle-class black family feeling the strain of their new reality and delivers as a finely carved slice of everyday life that's further strengthened by sincere performances from the quartet that make the household.

Written & directed by Gabriel Martins, the story is character-driven and benefits a lot from the full-fledged personalities inhabiting the script, each bestowed with tangible identities which in turn also makes the audience want to invest in their journey. Through their personal struggle & desires, the film addresses various topics & themes prevalent in families living on the outskirts.

All four characters are given equal priority & sufficient screen time by the director and despite the tone being grim & heartbreaking, it still manages to find some wickedly hilarious scenes in the process. As with every family drama, it is the conflicts & relationships with each other that drives the narrative and the actors play their roles convincingly, both individually & as a family unit.

Overall, Mars One is competently crafted & patiently told but whether it's going to work for you or not depends a lot on how invested you are in their lives & problems. Otherwise, its slow pace & meandering plot can make it a chore to sit through. Not everything lands right, for the proper cohesiveness of all the subthreads isn't there but there is ample that viewers can connect with one way or another.

The movie "Mars One" delves into the daily lives of a typical low-middle-class family residing in the urban landscape of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Against the backdrop of a far-right political change, the family grapples with their individual challenges and dreams enhancing their humanity and resilience.

What enhances the movie's authenticity and emotional impact is its depiction of a black family: the father working as a building janitor, the mother employed as a maid, their daughter juggling law studies and tutoring, and their teenage son's dreams of becoming an astrophysicist. In this context, the very good director and creator Gabriel Martins crafts parallel storylines for each character, which are bound to intertwine and intersect as the film unfolds.

The story unfolds around a father's ambition to nurture his son into a professional football player, a mother struggling with emotional trauma and a belief in her ability to bring bad luck to everyone around her, a daughter defying her parents' conservative ideals to follow her own path, and a son torn between fulfilling his father's expectations and pursuing his fascination with the cosmos. The movie's beauty emanates from the delicate, original, and authentic performances of each character, with Rejane Faria's portrayal of Tercia, the mother, deserving special recognition. She serves as the guiding force weaving together all these stories.

"Mars One" is a heartfelt film that portrays the lives of an ordinary family, discussing everyday experiences with a universal appeal. Its themes are relatable to families worldwide, irrespective of their cultural background. The movie beautifully illustrates that the dream of Mars transcends borders and is a shared aspiration for humanity as a whole.