Sundance 2022: Marte Um (Mars One) Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Marte Um (Mars One) is a story set within a working-class Brazilian family as they encounter both interior and exterior changes to their lives and rely on each other to see them through.

At its heart are Deivinho (Lucas) and Nina (Damião), a brother and sister, who are each wanting something more than what their parents, Wellington and Tercia, intend for them. For Wellington (Francisco), a well-respected superintendent of a condo facility, his path to true success is placed upon his son becoming a budding soccer prospect who in actuality wants to channel his passion not towards sport, but towards engineering for the eventual colonization of Mars. Nina, being in a similar situation, conceals her evolving romance with her girlfriend and attempts to subvert having to reveal her true self for fear of rejection. As the matriarch, Tercia (Rejane Faria) enjoys her position within the household but is quickly challenged by a series of comical disasters happening close to her that lead her down a path of believing she is cursed.

While the family’s individual storylines are emphasized throughout, the true power of Marte Um (Mars One) lies when their narratives intersect with one another, often colliding in a spectacularly authentic fashion. It is at these junctions where the film truly shines as there can be so much beauty and comedy in the everyday, a theme that is easily the engine for this story and empowers each of the characters to become stronger throughout. While heartwarming, its running time can feel overly extended in some moments with the motive feeling as if certain scenes need to breathe longer than others, however, this formed a slight disconnect by the film’s conclusion.

In the end, Marte Um (Mars One) delivers a charming story that falls just shy of being fully satisfying.  However, its greatness lies through its successful depiction of a genuine family, their lives constructed with victories, failures, and tribulations, with who the audience feels entertained by as silent observers. Despite their differences, everything they do is grounded in love for each other which as its central theme permeates throughout the film where audiences cannot help but smile after its conclusion.

*still courtesy of Sundance

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