Redemption In Alfonso Cuarón's Children Of Men
As one of the first films marketed as a teaching text, Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men (2006) depicts an apocalyptic world which relies on the growth and establishment of new communities in order to find redemption. Set in London, 2027, the viewer follows the anti-hero, Theo, on his journey of self redemption. Living in a nation which is in a constant state of warfare as the government hunts down illegal immigrants, Theo becomes involved with a terrorist group rebelling against the system which results in him having to protect an unmarried young black immigrant woman, Kee, who is the first woman to bear a child in eighteen years. Cuarón creates a realistic, modern dystopia through contemporary fears of nuclear warfare, terrorism, environmental
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Theo is being escorted in a Rolls Royce to his cousin Nigel’s home, “The Ark of Arts”, as he passes crowds of people dressed in dark, battered clothing, travelling by foot or on bicycle through the streets. The car passes a group who are worshiping the lord dressed in yellow ponchos with the word “REPENT” plastered to their chests. They hold up signs which blame the sins of mankind for the plague of infertility as a single man preaches about the earthquakes, disease, and famine the Lord has brought down upon the world as punishment. The placement of this doomsday cult within the setting of the sequence is a strategic use of mise-en-scene by the director which assists the viewer’s understanding of how the government instills fear in the nation and that fear turns into blame. In the documentary “The Possibility of Hope”, Philosopher and Cultural Critic Slavoj Zizek explains his opinion that the “main mode of politics is fear. … Political groups today are banks of people who are afraid, who are mobilized by fear. Fear of immigrants, fear of leftists, … fear of taxation. … This is [the] definition of infertility” in the segment on fear (6:05). The cult’s fear of the destruction of the Earth segregates them from the rest of society and they rebel against the government through protests and political
Theo is being escorted in a Rolls Royce to his cousin Nigel’s home, “The Ark of Arts”, as he passes crowds of people dressed in dark, battered clothing, travelling by foot or on bicycle through the streets. The car passes a group who are worshiping the lord dressed in yellow ponchos with the word “REPENT” plastered to their chests. They hold up signs which blame the sins of mankind for the plague of infertility as a single man preaches about the earthquakes, disease, and famine the Lord has brought down upon the world as punishment. The placement of this doomsday cult within the setting of the sequence is a strategic use of mise-en-scene by the director which assists the viewer’s understanding of how the government instills fear in the nation and that fear turns into blame. In the documentary “The Possibility of Hope”, Philosopher and Cultural Critic Slavoj Zizek explains his opinion that the “main mode of politics is fear. … Political groups today are banks of people who are afraid, who are mobilized by fear. Fear of immigrants, fear of leftists, … fear of taxation. … This is [the] definition of infertility” in the segment on fear (6:05). The cult’s fear of the destruction of the Earth segregates them from the rest of society and they rebel against the government through protests and political