By Veronika Sinou,
Recently I came across the movie “Children of men” and could not help but notice the striking similarities between the current situation and the movie script. The most interesting factor about this movie is its producing date. The film was made in 2006, based on the performance of the screenplay for the book “The children of men”, which was published in 1996. The film was directed by Alfonso Cuaron and has a rating of 7.9 stars on IMDb, whilst having been nominated for three Oscars.
The Movie Plot
The story takes place in a dystopia of 2027, where humans can no longer have procreate. This infertility of the population has led to an utter chaos and to people losing all their hope for a better future. In the very first scene, the pessimist protagonist is shown to experience a daily morning on his way to work, until the moment when a crack explodes next to him, destroying the nearby store. In the background a tv is informing us that the youngest man in the world has passed away. His age is being measured in years, days and seconds. In that exact moment we are given the initial image of pessimism that prevails this reality.
A few scenes later the protagonist, named Theo, is being kidnapped by a group called “Fishes”, led by his ex-wife, Julian. He later reveals that, before he lost his will to live, he was an activist by her side, but now he was living his life aimlessly. Furthermore, the two mentioned above had a son, who died due to the outbreak of a flu and in that moment the couple parted ways.
The protagonist’s kidnapping group was organizing an internal revolution against the conservative government and needed Theo’s help to provide them with transportation papers. When he provides the necessary documents, he finds out that the transfer concerns an illegal refugee, a woman named Kee. During the transfer, Julia and some other members of the Fishes are killed in an ambush, however Theo saves the girl and some other members of the organization.
After finding shelter in an organization building, Kee reveals to Theo that she is pregnant and in fact in an advanced delivery. She confides to Theo that the Fishes would use her and her pregnancy as a political tool to put pressure on the government. She escapes from the shelter and follows the protagonist to a safer place.
There they organize a plan to reach the ship that would take them to the hidden Fertility treatment center where it was rumored that they had managed to reverse infertility. The existence of this place was questioned from the first minutes of the film by our protagonist, but in the end he ends up embarking on the journey with Kee, to the scientific center for fertility treatment – which is called “The Human project”. This was the only solution that would ensure the safety of Kee’s child and the possible continuation of the human race.
In the last scene, the protagonist dies inside the boat with Kee, who at that moment sees the ship that will transport her to the Human project. The end of the film leaves a bittersweet taste, as it does not give a specific ending and lets the viewer to imagine his own ideal closing of the film.
The symbolisms of the movie
The symbolism of the pandemic is more relevant than ever. Signs and patterns of human behavior that appear during the film are still present today, with the difference that in our case it is the reality.
In the presence of an external threat -especially in the form of a disease- it is not only the health sector that collapses. Society is in a state of emergency, inequalities, xenophobia and wanton targeting of specific groups have been created. In addition, conspiracy theories flourish in the film as well as they do in our time. There is also a huge wave of economic insecurity spreading amongst the citizens, especially when there are migratory inflows.
All the above patterns and human behaviors are strongly encountered today and at this point it proves either how well-written is this production or how predictable human nature is. In any case, the film raises concerns and questions that may need to be considered individually in order to change the patterns in the future.
References
- Children of men – The movie
