Children of Men
Children of Men is a 2006 film by Alfonso Cuarón. Set in London year 2027, women have been infertile for nearly 20 years and widespread chaos has gripped the country. It emerges that England is the only country that soldiers on, that is still controlled by a government. The influx of immigrants is overwhelming and the country has taken to make immigration illegal. All immigrants are captured and killed.
Although the film is set in the future, not much seems to have changed in the built environment (apart from the addition of LCD screens to building facades). Vehicles are equipped with plastic bumpers and bonnets and suttle impact warning lights in the windscreen. Everything looks old, dirty and worn out. Britain, although soldiering on, is a country in chaos.
Children of Men is one of the case studies used in Mariano Paz’s 2010 thesis Ideology and Dystopia: Political Discourse in Contemporary Science Fiction Film. Other British films studied in the thesis include Code 46 (2003) and 28 Weeks Later (2007). (He also studies American and Argentinian films, which are not as relevant to my thesis project) Paz’s work is providing me with many good points of reference, not only in terms of critical film reviews, but also new angles on the definition of dystopia (such as the idea of a critical dystopia) and how the topic can be expanded further.
