Back in the early 2000’s Encounters did a retrospective of the early shorts of Alfonso Cuarón, including his 1983 short Quartet for the End of Time, which explores the solitary life of a young man, made when Cuarón was a 22 year-old film student in Mexico City. Shot in black and white, it was the final stepping stone toward a move into features and a journey that would lead him via Children of Men, to Oscar® glory with Gravity and Roma.

One of the 21st Century’s most acclaimed films, Cuarón’s dystopian chase thriller Children of Men depicts a world plunged into chaos, its future blighted by mass infertility as the human race finds itself one generation from extinction.

England, 2027: this green and pleasant land is now a dirty dystopia in which humanity has become infertile and its childless society is crumbling as refugees and terrorists fight the fascist powers that be. Submerged in this chaos is alcoholic former activist-turned-bureaucrat Theo Faron (Clive Owen), who watches in despair from the sidelines until a surprise visit from an ex-lover (Julianne Moore) offers him an unlikely glimmer of hope.

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