Children of Men

How this film uses it

Cuarón and production designer Jim Clay design 2027 Britain as 2006 Britain with 20 more years of neglect. The cars look like the ones on the road now. The buildings have been patched and never rebuilt, and the refugee camps are made of materials you recognize. This future is worked out from the present, and nothing is imagined from scratch. So you can't wave away what it says about immigration and state violence as fantasy.

Where to see it

The refugee cages at Bexhill. The detention site is built from familiar present-day materials. The near future shows up looking like now, so you don't get the comfort of it seeming strange.

How this film uses it

Emmanuel Lubezki shoots handheld, and that gives the film its key quality: it feels like a witness. The camera moves through the Bexhill battle like a war reporter. It takes whatever angles it can get, and none of them feel planned. I feel like you can still follow the chaotic combat scenes because the camera acts like someone trying to survive while recording.

Where to see it

The Bexhill battle sequences. The handheld camera pushes through rubble and gunfire, and you experience the battle from inside it.

How this film uses it

The car attack sequence and the Bexhill battle are each staged as 1 long take that appears to have no cuts. During the Bexhill battle, blood smears on the lens and nobody wipes it off. The camera moves through spaces where soldiers have just fought and shows you the aftermath without cutting away. With no cuts, you don't get a string of dramatic highlights. The violence becomes 1 continuous, exhausting experience.

Where to see it

The Bexhill battle. A long take that looks unbroken follows Theo through the street fighting and into the building. The blood stays on the lens as proof of what the camera has been through.

How this film uses it

You only get glimpses of the worst conditions in the refugee camps. With the cages and the soldiers' casual brutality, Cuarón often shows someone reacting and leaves out the act itself. Other times, he lets sound describe what the frame won't show. Holding back is a political choice. The film will not make a spectacle of suffering.

Where to see it

The Bexhill sequences. Gunfire, loudspeakers and silence tell you what is happening beyond the frame. The film keeps its political point by not letting the camera exploit the suffering for images.