Although his new film, Children of Men, takes place in 2027, director Alfonso Cuarón is uninterested in the usual trappings of science fiction stories.
"I didn't want the safety nest of being in an illusion [by making the future unrecognizable]," Cuarón says.
Instead, Children of Men is more subtly placed in the future, with hints from television broadcasts and a layer of pollution in the air. Cars on a London street have been altered slightly to remind us of the setting.
But aside from these background details, the film looks and feels like the present. It's a realistic future, based on contemporary themes such as immigration and terrorism. What Cuarón envisions seems entirely possible. His film doesn't warn, it pleads.
"Atrocities you see in the film are going on now in other parts of the world," Cuarón says.
Cuarón fills Children of Men with "references to iconography of the present," such as prisoners being mistreated at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp and demonstrations in the Middle East, bringing the film's chaos-filled future uncomfortably close to home. "We were trying to make a portrait of today," he says.
In the film, which is based on the novel by P. D. James, women have been infertile for 18 years. But one woman has become pregnant - somehow, miraculously - and it's up to Theo (Clive Owen) to safely transport her away from society.
The film does not try to explain the infertility crisis. Cuarón instead uses the premise as a "metaphor for fading sense of hope for humanity and humanity's lack of historical perspective."
The reaction to the film has differed among various age groups, Cuarón notes. While younger audiences have taken a hopeful message from the film, Cuarón says many people from his generation saw the film as depressing because of their own experiences.
"We saw the world degenerating in front of our eyes," he says.
Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki worked with Cuarón to produce a realistic effect with lengthy tracking shots and handheld cameras. Their intention was to "create a moment of truthfulness," Cuarón says.
Although Children of Men can be compared to the dystopian films of the 1970s - the lone hero, the government-sponsored monstrosities of Soylent Green - Cuarón hopes to leave viewers with a more urgent message. "Now, there's no time for caution-only time for transformation."
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