Summary
While in the car, Kee begins to have terrible contractions. They do not reveal her pregnancy to Syd; rather, they tell him that she is sick. They arrive at Bexhill and Syd says he does not want to know why they want to get into prison. Syd gives them instructions to meet a woman named Marichka once they get into the facility, who will provide them with a place to sleep. He then pretends to have arrested them for a crime, shouting at them to get on a bus with the other fugees. They are set to meet the Tomorrow at sunset the following day.
On the bus, Miriam explains why it is so important that they meet the Tomorrow at the designated time. The only way to contact the Human Project is through “mirrors,” or a message passed on from person to person until it gets back to Julian, the Fishes’ “mirror.” They have never actually spoken to a member of the Human Project. Kee continues to have terrible contractions, attracting attention on the bus, though no one understands what is going on with her. Suddenly she realizes her water has broken, and that the baby is coming soon.
They reach the Bexhill facilities, where officers come on the bus to interrogate the fugees. One demands to know what is wrong with Kee, and Miriam is taken away when she attempts to distract him by pretending that she is insane. Theo pretends to speak little English and tells the officer that Kee has soiled herself. It works, and he does not take the two of them off the bus. They drive away as a bag is placed over Miriam’s head, presumably a precursor to torture.
The officers march Kee and Theo into the camp, which is like a small, dirty, overcrowded city. There, they find the woman they were told to find, Marichka, who takes them on her bike to a place where they can stay. On the way, they pass graffiti that suggests that the fugees plan to stage an uprising. Kee has difficulty getting up the stairs in the dirty apartment where Marichka takes them, and it is clear that she is about to have her baby. They do not allow Marichka to realize what is about to happen as she leads them to a room with a mattress and then leaves with her little dog.
Theo tries to make Kee comfortable, and puts his jacket under her to make sure she does not make a mess. He does his best to help her deliver her baby, as she screams in agony and insists that she cannot. Eventually, though, she delivers a small baby girl, who cries, showing that she is alive and breathing. Kee holds her daughter, unable to believe it. They do not cut the baby’s cord right away. Kee and Theo laugh in delight.
The scene changes to the following morning, with Kee asleep on the mattress holding her baby daughter in her arms. There is pounding on the door, and Syd and Marichka are revealed. They attempt to hide Kee’s baby as Syd tells them that war has broken out between the British army and the refugees, including the Fishes, and that the army is about to blow Bexhill up. He says he is there to get them out. Syd notices that Kee has something in her arms, and demands to see. He and Marichka are astonished to see a baby, and Theo asks them for help in finding a boat to get them out of there. Marichka immediately begins babbling in her language, trying to say that she does not want them to go with Syd because he is bad.
Syd leads them out of the building at gunpoint, and reveals that he wants to turn the two of them in because they have a huge bounty on their heads from both the cops and the Fishes. Theo tries to stop him and a fight ensues, with Syd firing his gun and Marichka hitting Syd with a giant hammer to knock him out. Marichka smuggles Theo, Kee, and the baby out the door and out of the building, where it is clear that a fight is going on between the refugees and the British army. The fugees are staging their uprising.
Analysis
Bexhill, the camp for illegal immigrants to Britain, has been a subject of discussion throughout the entire film. Up until this point, it was difficult to imagine a place bleaker than London itself or even the surrounding countryside, but Bexhill is by far the most desolate landscape audiences have yet encountered in the film. The filmmakers do not spare the audience and show humans in their most primal, desperate state, being mentally, verbally, and physically abused by the camp’s guards.
This place is clearly political commentary on the world’s fear of foreigners during times of crisis. Though it is easy to pretend this is simply part of a science fiction movie, there have been many historical instances that reflect the conditions in Bexhill. Nazi concentration camps, internment camps for Japanese Americans, and current establishments housing Syrian refugees all mirror this crippling xenophobia that can allow a society to forget its humanity. In the film, the people of Britain are afraid of fugees because they believe they will bring further terror in a period of existing turmoil. In the world today, many Western nations fear refugees for a similar reason. This film brings this problem to light and challenges audiences to question this fear and analyze whether or not it is causing more problems than it solves.
This film’s central focus on Kee and her pregnancy is notable, primarily because Kee was not a character in the corresponding novel, The Children of Men by P.D. James. When asked about her inclusion, director Alfonso Cuarón talks about connecting his film to the origin of humanity, which, according to the theory of evolution, has been traced to the African continent. By having Kee, an African refugee, carrying the first pregnancy in twenty years and therefore the future of humanity within her, Cuarón draws a parallel between the futuristic world he has created and humanity’s distant past.
Though Kee’s pregnancy has not yet reached full term, she ends up delivering her baby in Bexhill. The director’s choice to make this the baby’s birthplace is significant for two reasons: first, because it adds a new dimension to Theo and Kee’s struggle. The two must now not only conceal a pregnancy, but a living, breathing baby, which is far more difficult. It also holds symbolic significance. New life and new promise for humanity has just been born in Bexhill, a place that has thus far been untouched by humanity’s kindness. In a place where it appears there was no hope for the future, hope has appeared at last.
These scenes continue the film’s theme of sacrifice; people are constantly willing to put their lives on the line to protect Kee and her baby, who represent the future of humanity. Miriam does this when she feigns insanity to distract the prison guard from Kee’s contractions, and Marichka does this, even though she does not speak their language, when she attacks Syd in order to keep him from turning them in. These sacrifices represent the best in humanity; conversely, Syd’s willingness to risk the survival of Kee and her child to turn them in and earn a reward shows the other side of human nature, geared only towards self-preservation and reward.
