"Children of Men" (2006) Directed by Alfonso Cuaron

“Every time one of our politicians are in trouble, a bomb explodes”.Show more

Children of Men was my first in depth exposure to the films of Alfonso Cuaron and became a firm favourite of mine immediately on release in 2006. As I write this ten years later the film’s overriding themes of alienation in a post apocalyptic world, of failing social structural norms, oppressively high tensions surrounding immigration and nationhood still resonate deeply whilst shining a light on some of today’s eerily similar worldwide issues. Set in the year 2027, the film is anything but futuristic with a dirty grey colour palette dominating, and with society failing in all directions there are no discernible signatures of a futuristic world to come, of flying cars, enhanced transportation, logistics or media.

In it’s place is a disintegrating world at war with itself, a disillusioned populace and it’s immigrant inhabitants enclosed in horrific holding pens and internment camps with only the UK and London seemingly free of the riots spreading throughout the globe. The film is ostensibly rooted in London which as a rolling train billboard proclaims “Only Britain Soldiers On” and on the surface at least this appears to be the case. London is still working and sporting life, recreation and life at large still in evidence but lurking around every corner are terrorist threats, Government oppression and horrifying immigrant exclusion zones that resemble war torn ghettos.

The world as a whole is dying with liberty, freedom and progression seemingly on permanent hold after 18 years of zero recorded new births that has spawned a societal depression across great swathes of the entire planet. Following the death of “Baby Diego”, the World’s previous youngest member, his torch has been passed to the next youngest person alive and she now carries the weight of the world’s expectation and every possible hope on her shoulders. However, unbeknownst to the world at large and more crucially the authorities, a young girl loosely associated with the anti Government “Fishes” organisation is, against all possible odds, pregnant, and needing safe passage to the “Human Project”. Enter our accident prone and reluctantly accidental hero “Theo Faron” (Clive Owen).

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my original spoiler free review of "Children of Men" penned and published nearly a decade ago, transferred to my Medium blog site on 13th December 2022 and which can also be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site and the link immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/children-of-men-2006-ce02ae875b06

This spoiler free review is also integral to my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection" and can be found within Volume 1. Only available currently in e-book form, each exhaustive volume of spoiler free film reviews is £4.99 however, should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package, you can read each and every volume for free:

Volume 1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HHDL56

All 7 Volumes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HZSTTH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

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