Is There Love On Mars?

It's 2014 and life has been discovered on Mars, prompting a new space race. A manned mission made up of three astronauts (played by Mark Duplass, Zoe Simpson and Paul Gordon) is in competition with a robotic expedition to be the first to land on the red planet. During their journey, the intrepid explorers have to deal with life-threatening accidents, egotistical politicians and the sheer tedium of space travel. But while Texan writer-director Marslett has taken care to construct a technologically consistent world that even the most devout sci-fi geek would struggle to find fault with, the film's off-world setting is actually a smokescreen for a more down-to-earth look at the nature of love.

The expedition to Mars acts as a metaphor for the pursuit of romance and how chasing it alters the nature of what's being sought. Sounds dry? It isn't, largely because of the film's arresting visuals. Achieved using a blend of image processing, digital rotoscoping and hand-drawn animation Marslett devised himself, they have a playful quality that imbues otherwise mundane scenarios with a sense of fantasy. It's essentially mumblecore in a rocket – the intimate and everyday with a sprinkling of space dust.

As David Bowie sang in Life On Mars?, this low-budget curio is the 'freakiest show' at this year's LFF.

Colin Houlson

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