One of the most technically brilliant and thematically layered films of the year, "Children of Men" is a stark, gray vision
of a future without hope. How does a society respond when its outlook is irrefutably grim? And how quickly does joy return when hope re-emerges? Based on the
P.D. James novel, the film is set in the fall of 2027, when the world is in utter chaos. News reports refer to day 1,000 in "the siege of Seattle." Governments have toppled. Anarchy reigns supreme. Only the United Kingdom has maintained some semblance of order, and that only shakily and dubiously, as the government relies on fascist tactics and a steady diet of misinformation to maintain even the slight control it has. The cause of all this confusion? It has been 18 years since any woman on Earth has had a baby. For reasons unknown, humans have become universally infertile. First birthrates declined, then plummeted, and then, in 2009, ceased altogether. There is literally not a single child anywhere in the world. The youngest person is 18.
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