Greetings from Mars

Tom is ten and different from the other kids: he doesn’t like change, doesn’t like things that are red, and anything loud quickly becomes too much for him. His specialty is space, especially Mars. He loves nothing more than running around in his astronaut suit, and in tough situations, he likes to wear a helmet too. When his mom unexpectedly has to go to China, Tom is supposed to move in with his grandparents in the countryside in Lunau for six weeks, along with his siblings Nina (15) and Elmar (13). For Tom, it’s a disaster. But to help him get through it, his mom gives him a logbook and suggests he view the trip to his grandparents’ as a test mission to Mars. “If you can handle Grandma and Grandpa,” she assures him, “then you’ll definitely be able to handle Mars.” And so Tom promptly appoints his sister Nina, who’s constantly on the phone, as radio operator, and the hyperactive Elmar as first officer. Together with his crew, he tries to explore the planet Lunau and understand Grandma and Grandpa, who seem to live by rules of their own... “A children’s film directed with a light touch, subtle humor, and great empathy, that shifts smoothly between the perspectives of the main character and the other characters. It gives equal space to imagination and a realistic foundation for the story. – Worth seeing” (Lexikon des Internationalen Films)