Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"The Possibility of Hope" is an American English-language documentary short film from 2007, so this one had its 10th anniversary last year and it was directed and co-written by (then not yet) Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón from Mexico. This was released as an add-on to his successful movie Children of Men and it delivers on the broken world premise if you want to call it that as in here we have several scientists and philosophers elaborate on the biggest problems and challenges for our world, not the world in Children of Men. And there we got one problem already. I personally felt that the subject was moved too far away from the film it is linked with. Besides, obviously this was somewhat doomed to fail really as honestly the contents here are far too complex for under 30 minutes and while some of the interviewees make good points here and there, I felt that even they were struggling a bit to get the entire idea and project here in the right context. Perhaps the editing could have been better too. This is not a must-see for fans of Children of Men by any means and I believe Cuarón has done better many times. Maybe documentaries aren't his biggest strength or it is just this one here. You won't be missing much if you decide to skip it. The only perspective from which it could be interesting is if we or our children and grandchildren watch it 50 years from now and take a look at what we were thinking back in 2007 and how things turned out eventually with regard to the issues included in here. That could be pretty interesting in fact. But as for now, I have to give this one a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
