Mars Express

An animated crime film set on Mars in the twenty-third century. Aline is a private detective. Her partner Carlos is an android, a backup built on the personality of a dead policeman. The two are looking for a missing cybernetics student. The case opens quickly into something larger: a group breaking the security locks on androids, and the plan behind it. The visual idea is technical: humans are drawn by hand in 2D and robots are made in 3D computer animation. So the distinction on screen exists in the production itself. The narrative uses the noir template directly: the tired detective, the city at night, the untrustworthy client, and an investigation that becomes personal. The science fiction is also built without explanation. Brain farms, personality backups and the legal status of androids are placed inside the narrative and the film expounds on none of them. Jérémie Périn directed and wrote it with Laurent Sarfati. It screened at Cannes in 2023 and competed at the Annecy animation festival. One of the densest recent works for anyone who likes adult animation and science-fiction crime. For a viewer expecting a slow narrative, the film gives information fast and the connections are lost if attention slips.