A Volta Dos Que Não Foram Filme

Guide to Watching a Volta dos Que Não Foram

A volta dos que não foram filme came out in 2017, directed by André Charlot, based on Paulo Coelho's novel. It's a Brazilian sci-fi comedy about four astronauts who spend what they thought was a week aboard the ISS only to return and find 35 years have passed on Earth. Simple premise. The execution is where things get interesting, or frustrating, depending on who you ask. The film has rotated between streaming platforms over the years. At various points it's been on Netflix Brazil, Globoplay, and Prime Video. Right now your best bet is to check Globoplay first, since it's a production tied to RecordTV's ecosystem. If it's not there, a quick search on JustWatch for Brazil will tell you which service currently holds the rights. These licensing deals change every few months. Physical media is essentially dead for this one. No Blu-ray release exists in Brazil. You won't find it in DVD form either. The digital rental options on Google Play Movies and Apple TV are usually around R$10-15 for a 48-hour window, which is reasonable if you just want to watch it once.

Technical quality expectations

Don't expect cinema-grade visuals. The film was shot on a modest budget, and the ISS sequences rely heavily on green screen work that looks dated even for 2017 standards. I remember watching a test screening where the compositing on the spacewalking scenes was clearly unfinished — you could see the green spill around the actors' helmets. The final release still shows this, especially in wide shots. The audio mix is another weak point. Dialogue often sits too low in the mix during action sequences, making it hard to follow without subtitles even if you're a native Portuguese speaker. I had the volume cranked so high during the ISS emergency scene that my neighbors complained. It's not a high-fidelity audio experience. Watch it with subtitles on your TV rather than trying to catch everything through sound alone.

What the film actually does well

The core emotional thread works better than the spectacle. The scene where the astronauts return to a Brazil that has moved on without them — their families aged, careers erased, friends gone — carries genuine weight. Diego Fernández delivers a performance that anchors the whole thing. The screenplay doesn't shy away from the grief of losing time, which most blockbusters of this budget would gloss over with humor. The supporting cast adds real texture. Selton Mello as one of the returned astronauts brings a specific kind of Brazilian melancholy that feels earned rather than performative. The film's second act, where the characters navigate a world that no longer recognizes them, is where the story finds its footing. That's roughly the middle 45 minutes of a 105-minute runtime.

Problems you might run into

If you're trying to watch this with a group or for a study session, there's a pacing issue that catches people off guard. The first act drags significantly — about 30 minutes of setup before anything meaningful happens. Some viewers tune out during this section. My workaround was fast-forwarding past the initial training montage sequences on a rewatch, which saved about 12 minutes without losing narrative coherence. The space training footage doesn't add anything the dialogue already explained. Another edge case: the film's availability varies wildly by region even within Brazil's streaming platforms due to licensing quirks. I once spent 20 minutes switching between Globoplay and Prime Video trying to find it because one platform had it under a different title listing. Always search using the full title to avoid confusion with similarly named content.

How it compares to the source material

Paulo Coelho's original novel is substantially different from the film. The book is more introspective and philosophical, less focused on the action-comedy beats that the filmmakers added. If you read the novel first, the movie will feel noticeably thinner in its emotional exploration. If you watch the movie first, the book offers more interiority but follows the same structural beats. I'd recommend the film first, then the book if you want deeper engagement with the themes. The film compresses several of the novel's key philosophical conversations into shorter scenes. The sequence where the astronauts debate whether they should try to change the future or accept it loses nuance on screen, but the core question remains intact.

Is it worth your time?

It depends on what you're looking for. If you want solid special effects or a tight narrative, this isn't it. The film has rough edges throughout — pacing issues in the first act, underdeveloped villains, and a third act that rushes toward its conclusion. But for a low-budget Brazilian sci-fi film, it accomplishes what it sets out to do: tell a story about loss and adaptation with some genuine heart underneath the uneven execution. Give it about 90 minutes. If you're not hooked by the midpoint return sequence, it's fine to stop. The film doesn't get dramatically better after its middle section, though it doesn't fall apart completely either. At worst it's a curiosity. At best it's a genuinely moving piece of Brazilian genre cinema that proves the country can tell intimate stories even when working within a sci-fi framework.

Context for understanding the film

The film was one of Brazil's bigger sci-fi attempts in the 2010s, coming at a time when the local industry was experimenting with genre filmmaking beyond horror and comedy. It faced significant production hurdles — funding delays pushed the release from an original 2015 target to 2017. The COVID-19 pandemic later affected its theatrical run, compressing its window before it moved to streaming. This history matters because it explains some of the unevenness in the final product. The cast includes well-known Brazilian actors, many of whom were taking genre roles for the first time. That inexperience sometimes shows in stiffer performances, particularly from actors accustomed to comedic or dramatic roles rather than the demands of a sci-fi production. Diego Fernández and Selton Mello stand out as exceptions who handle the genre requirements competently.