Children of Men. 2006. USA/Great Britain/Japan. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Screenplay by Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby. With Clive Owen, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julianne Moore. 109 min.
Intelligent, intense, and unflinchingly grim, Children of Men makes civilization’s last desperate gasp for survival seem inevitable. As imagined in P. D. James’s dystopian novel, people in the near future lack a future. A worldwide plague of infertility, the unthinkable prospect of childlessness, has brought about civil war in England. Alfonso Cuarón treats the terrifying unfolding of events like documentary reportage, recording the roundup and imprisonment of immigrant refugees, and the fog of urban battle, as Robert Capa might.
35mm print courtesy of NBCUniversal
Kempinski. 2007. France/Mali. Directed by Neïl Beloufa. 14 min.
An Algerian and French contemporary artist, Neïl Beloufa staged this sci-fi documentary hybrid in Mali, where locals offer their fantastical visions of the future.
Courtesy of the artist. Digital projection