THE LAST DAYS ON MARS (2013)

UK-Ireland. Direction: Ruairí Robinson. Production: Michael Kuhn, Andrea Cornwell / Qwerty Films, Fantastic Films. Screenplay: Clive Dawson. Photography: Robbie Ryan. Music: Max Richter. Edition: Peter Lambert. Cast: Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai, Olivia Williams, Johnny Harris, Tom Cullen. Running time: 109 min

LANGUAGE: English / SUBTITLES: Spanish

In FilmAffinity, obliged to classify this movie produced among others by the Irish Film Board and presented with full honours and complete glory at the very elegant and selective Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, they decided to define it, get this, as “Science Fiction. Thriller. Space adventure. Survival. Zombies”. A perfect list for a directorial debut where something infects someone on the red planet and all hell breaks loose, achieving a film that had the critic of The Hollywood Reporter shivering with fear as he watched it, still managing an arrogant “reasonably fascinating”. He was lying. It’s irrationally powerful, a ballsy Anglo-Gaelic space-horror that’s already ovulating aliens and half-Martian zombies by minute 36 of the footage.