Film Review: Settlers

                         Settlers

The idea of escape has sounded really good to most of us, especially in the past few pandemic years when the concept was impossible to accomplish safely.

Writer/director Wyatt Rockefeller picks up this theme in his debut film “Settlers,” relocating a family trio of earthlings to Mars, where they hope to find “more.”

Mom Ilsa (Sofia Boutella) and dad Reza (Jonny Lee Miller) don’t specify more what, nor why Mars might be thought to provide it, but when we meet them Reza is pointing out to young daughter Remmy (Brooklynn Prince) the constellations in the night sky – including earth.

Somebody seems to have been to this part of Mars before, because an enclosed garden of the type seen in the 2020 “Spaceship Earth” documentary – in which a group of latter-day hippies built, then sealed themselves into an Arizona dome called Biosphere 2 to see how long they could last – is on this Mars site as well, along with a few other desolate-looking buildings which fit in well with the bleakness of the parched Martian terrain. (This film was made in South Africa’s Namaqualand Desert.)

Remmy befriends two piglets she sees – no, they don’t talk but they are cute, warm and friendly, unlike the huge threatening “LEAVE” that one day shows up scrawled on one of the windows where the family is living. Clearly, Mars is no more welcoming than Earth was. Some of these unpleasant neighbors are also fortified with deadly weapons, and apparently willing to use them.

So what is Remmy to do? With no other kids around, and parents who seem increasingly unhappy with each other, she does what they all do: she invents her own world. 

But this environment seems to require a kill-or-be-killed mentality, and soon Reza is replaced by Jerry (Ismael Cruz Córdova), heavily armed, ambitious and interested in Ilsa. He claims to be a native and says he knows “how to get it back to where it was.” Where can Remmy go now?

Give Rockefeller credit for daring: Here’s an outer-space story without interplanetary war with neither little nor giant green creatures. “Settlers” is an art house film in which there is very little observable action. What happens is mostly interior, and requires audience participation. We watch each character deal with the unfolding situations in his or her own way and try to figure out what they’re going to do next.

It’s bleak, grim and thought-provoking, buoyed by a fine cast and simple but effective visuals. Boutella’s Ilsa plays determined mama bear to Prince’s why-are-we-here Remmy and Miller’s disappointed Reza. The most interesting characters are Córdova’s I-can-fix-this Jerry and Steve, a metal robot who becomes Remmy’s only playmate.

“Settlers” is an odd, difficult but impressive film. I look forward to Rockefeller’s next effort.

“Settlers” opens Friday, July 23 in select theaters and on demand