Editor

The attention grabbing film in San Sebastian, on day number three, was "Children of Men", a British pic directed by Mexican helmer Alfonso Cuarón and starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. The film, projected in the special side-bar, ZABALTEGI- PERLAS or "Pearls of the Open Zone", is set in the not too distant future, one generation from now, and presents the possibility that humanity could die out if the last pregnant woman on Earth does not give birth. In the film all females in the world (all but one) have become sterile as the result of a disastrous biotechnical glitch which obviously means that the days of the species are numbered.

The year is 2027 and no children have been born anywhere on earth for 18 years. Science is at a loss to explain the reason as African and East European societies collapse and their dwindling populations migrate to England and other wealthy nations. In a climate of nationalistic violence, a London peace activist turned bureaucrat, Theo Faron (Clive Owen), joins forces with his revolutionary ex-wife Julianne (Moore) in order to save mankind by protecting a woman who has mysteriously became pregnant.

Although some people might think that this refers to the coming of the next Messiah, Cuarón denies that he intended to make a religious film. “The idea of the film was to make the microcosm of London the setting for the most burning questions of the early 21st century. We have tried to reflect on emigration, terrorism and the threats to the environment which are the major concerns of mankind at the present time. I have a very pessimist vision of the present but a very hopeful one for the future