Director’s statement: Gabriel Martins
In the first scene of my sophomore film Mars One, Deivid, the young boy from the Martins family, is sitting in his backyard looking at the stars. He wonders, ‘What’s out there?’ This house is located very close to the one where I was born, and where my parents live to this day. At the same time, we can hear fireworks and shouts celebrating the election of Jair Bolsonaro. I believe this contrast enunciated that this is a film about possibilities: what can a Black family in the Brazil of today be? Mars One is not an autobiographical film, but Deivid and I have a lot in common: we dared to dream dreams that were not made for people like us.
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.
In Mars One, we navigate the desires and agonies of Tércia, Wellington, Deivid, and Eunice, observing them as they exist in their daily lives. I chose to shoot the film respecting the characters and letting the camera follow their emotions with an objective, but also an affectionate look. Unfortunately, it is very rare in cinema history to have a Black working-class family portrayed as protagonists, not focusing on violence or human disgrace. On top of that, we rarely see these characters wrapped in a narrative where we can feel multiple sides of them, their failures and successes, happiness and joy and, basically, the humanity in them. So my goal was to showcase a family, a normal family, like any other.
Wellington, the father, is a recovering alcoholic now with four years of sobriety, who goes every week to AA meetings – a character partially based on my father. One of the common sayings in AA meetings is to wish ‘24 hours’ to people (meaning 24 hours of sobriety). In the film, I try to think of this motto as also being related to the narrative structure of the film, following the daily life of these individuals. They will have their good and bad moments over the film’s 24 hours, constantly intertwined with money, chance, and love, ultimately finding their way as best as they can.
We shot Mars One just after the Brazilian election of 2018, which changed everything in our country. Even though the film is set against a turbulent political context – Jair Bolsonaro’s election being a low point for us – this is not a film that will try to reach a verdict on the political state of the country. Having said that, it is inevitable that viewers will interpret the film’s focus on looking beyond your present personal circumstances as a call for us not to be let down by the societal upheavals we all have to live with. I see the telescope that Deivid built with his own hands as a major symbol for life nowadays. I see myself there, I see my family, I see my people, my production company, and, in many ways, the Brazilian cinema that I’m part of and believe in: even with low resources and all the difficulties we face, we are able to see beyond. For me, Mars One is an unexpected but perhaps much-needed Brazilian tale of hope and stars.
Producer’s statement: Thiago Macêdo Correia
When Gabriel came to me with the idea of writing Mars One, we were still living in a time of prosperity in Brazilian cinema, especially regarding federal funds. Dilma Rousseff had suffered a coup d’etat, but the new people in power were not able, at that time, to dismantle a decade of building towards the promotion of our culture and artists.
The film was financed by a public fund, announced in 2016, made to support Black filmmakers and Black narratives and bring minority voices to the big screen. Of course, this fund does not exist anymore in the [then] current right-wing extremist government. We made the film during the runup to the last election, in October 2018, which influenced the narrative and our goals. We had no idea what the world would experience later, with the pandemic and the health/ economic/social crisis we’ve been dealing with, but all that made the film, in my opinion, even more relevant and important as a portrayal of normal people enduring these complicated times.
Mars One is going to be released in an even more strange and unexpected world than the one in which we shot it. The pandemic shines a light on our main issues as a society and offers an opportunity for us to grow in understanding, aiming for other possibilities in this global family we all are part of. I believe this is a very important film to reflect on all that.
Production notes
Mars One Marte um
Directed by: Gabriel Martins
Production Company: Filmes de Plástico
Co-producer: Canal Brasil
International Sales: Magnolia International
Producers: Thiago Macêdo Correia, André Novais Oliveira, Gabriel Martins,
Maurilio Martins
Written by: Gabriel Martins
Cinematography by: Leonardo Feliciano
Edited by: Gabriel Martins, Thiago Ricarte
Production Design by: Rimenna Procópio
Costume Design by: Marina Sandim
Music by: Daniel Simitan
Sound by: Tiago Bello, Marcos Lopes
Cast
Rejane Faria
Carlos Francisco
Camilla Damião
Cícero Lucas
Ana Hilário
Russo APR
Dircinha Macedo
Tokinho
Juan Pablo Sorrin
Brazil 2022
116 mins
Digital
The screening on Fri 15 May will be introduced by Marta Calderón Quiñones, Cinema Mentiré
Presented as part of the UK/Brazil Season of Culture 2025-26 and supported by Instituto Guimarães Rosa
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
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