Jasper's Newspaper Articles
Rather than expository dialogue or narration, the film makes use of images in order to fill in its characters' and their world's history. For example, during Theo's first visit to Jasper's house, the camera pans in on the various newspaper articles and photographs that Jasper has collected. These detailed images tell the story of Jasper's career as a political cartoonist, of Janice's as a photojournalist, and of the infertility crisis as it unfolded in the world twenty years before.
The City of London
Many of the film's scenes begin with panoramic images of the city of London. This London resembles the one viewers are familiar with today in its architecture and layout, but the resemblance stops there. The London depicted in Children of Men is darker, dirtier, and significantly more foreboding. Everyone on the street wears dark colors and scowls, and the streets themselves are grimy with trash. The only splotches of color in this new London that Cuarón creates are the television screens, which are alive with propaganda against illegal immigration.
The Abandoned School
The scene at the abandoned school is rich in provocative images of forgotten toys, disheveled furniture, and schoolbooks falling apart, taking the typical image of a school that viewers have contrived in their minds and corrupting it. The image of Kee swinging on the swing set is also especially jarring, as in this moment, she herself resembles a child even though she is carrying one.
Bexhill
The film's shots of Bexhill, the refugee camp, resemble depictions of notorious prison camps like Guantanamo Bay or even Nazi concentration camps like Auschwitz. The people living within are disheveled and hopeless, and the buildings that are meant to house them are falling apart, certainly not fit for living in. Bexhill stands in stark contrast to the movie's images of London, which, although certainly dirtier and darker than the London of today, is much more polished, habitable, and humane than this refugee camp.
