Alfonso Cuarón
I Figli Degli Uomini

Honestly, I had never heard of this film, and it was even more surprising to watch it without knowing the details and situations behind it. A surprise because the subject could have slipped into the usual nonsensical and over-spectacularized sci-fi tale, and because Clive Owen has never been my favorite. However, the story told by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, based on the 1992 novel by Phyllis Dorothy James, is not only a sci-fi film but also (and above all) a movie that raises more general questions for reflection.

We are in 2027, and for several years women seem to have lost their fertility. When the world's youngest person dies, pandemonium breaks out, supported by organizations fighting to defend immigrants, who in turn try every way to revolt.

The stage for this fragmented scenario, which takes on the characteristics of a post-apocalyptic tale, is an England that cages all refugees. In a veiled way, Cuaron outlines the "culture of intolerance": light drugs are prohibited (of which Jasper, played by Michael Caine, makes extensive use), a veteran hippie who aids the protagonist of the entire story, Theo (played by a finally convincing Clive Owen), just as intervention in favor of immigrants is prohibited. The latter, who has the aura of a life-wearied anti-hero disappointed by his past love affair with Julian (Julianne Moore), finds himself entangled due to his ex-wife in the clandestine organization called "Fishes," which carries out armed reprisals and supports the refugees' cause. Within this secret organization, there's a young girl, miraculously pregnant, and the mission entrusted to Theo is to get her to safety.

From this point on, a long journey begins through a plundered, solitary England, perpetually rendered dark and damp by the cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki, Cuaron's long-time collaborator and Oscar-nominated for Children of Men. A path that inevitably leads to death, blood, and the loss of friends and loved ones. What clearly emerges from the Mexican director's film is the conveyed message; a message directed at humanity as a whole: the film not only revolves around Theo's figure but interacts on different levels where new characters appear. From the initial scene where we find "the crowd" and then as the story progresses to eventually reach the conclusion, sequences with different individuals follow one another, almost to reiterate that Cuaron directs his thought towards the globality of people and not to restricted ethnic groups that might be called into question.

It is up to man to choose whether to continue on his course: experiments, global warming, and political choices have driven Earth to the brink of the abyss, and the result is women's infertility. The consequences are destruction, the outbreak of civil wars, hunger, violence. Yet in a world devastated by injustice and abjection, there is still room for hope. It may be a feel-good message, perhaps even predictable, but it passes through a compelling story, well-acted by the cast and stable on the narrative/filmic level.

"I was told to tell you that you are a fascist pig."