Settlers Parent Guide

Farming on Earth has always been a chancy business and it’s no easier on Mars. Reza (Johnny Lee Miller), his wife Ilsa (Sofia Boutella), and their daughter Remmy (Brooklynn Prince, later Neil Tiger Free) have been scratching a meager living in the red soil for a few years now. Their lives become even less secure when a small group of raiders arrive to claim the farm. Now the biggest drawback of their isolated lives becomes apparent: There’s no help on the way. Reza and the family are going to have to deal with this on their own…or die.

Settlers is perhaps the vaguest movie I’ve ever seen. Now, having seen some seriously over-expository films of late, I’m hesitant to complain, but this is taking it a little far. Clues about what’s going on beyond the camera are scarcer than hen’s teeth. I like this story to the extent that it makes the world feel big and mysterious – but we’re well past that point. Information is so scarce that it’s difficult to suss out character motivations, given the lack of context for their behavior.

I’ll spare you my scattered guesses and inferences since I think just about the only fun to be had here is in trying to draw those conclusions for yourself. But before you do, you might want to know a few things about the content in this film. There’s a very unpleasant and rape-y storyline in the latter half of the film which is not likely to make a lot of fans. There are also several scenes of bloody violence and a few instances of profanity.

Mostly, however, this film is a quiet, despairing story about life beyond the edge. Mars feels desolate and terribly lonely, even when there are people in frame. It’s actually hard to talk about this film for any period of time without giving away every single plot development, so if that level of sparseness isn’t your kind of thing, then you’re going to want to give Settlers a miss. Think of it more as a short story with a lot of landscapes between the pages – plenty to look at, plenty to think about, nothing to go on.