A mega flop nineteen years ago, but now considered one of the best films of the 21st century. The visionary, dystopian masterpiece by Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón (Roma) was far ahead of its time.

Children of Men takes us to the dystopian near-future of 2027 in totalitarian surveillance state England. The film begins on the day that the youngest child in the world, eighteen-year-old “Baby Diego”, is fatally stabbed by a hysterical fan because he does not feel like signing an autograph. The world has not only been struck by an inexplicable plague of infertility, but also by environmental disasters with accompanying refugee flows that are being housed in camps and cages.

P.D. James' thriller-like action story features Clive Owen (who at the time was even in the running to play James Bond) in the role of the reluctant hero Theo Faron, who must bring the only pregnant woman in the world to safety. Julianne Moore plays a freedom fighter. Chiwetel Ejiofor is her aide. Michael Caine is an old hippie. There is no shortage of stars. It is almost a Christmas story for atheists with a glimmer of hope at the end. A beloved genre. So what went wrong?  

Perhaps the film was both ahead of its time and too realistic. The Arab Spring, the refugee crisis, Brexit were all yet to come. But the fight against terrorism, governments distrusting their citizens, the depletion of the earth's resources, were all already underway. Children of Men is prophetic, spectacular science fiction of the highest order.

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