If you ever doubted the democratic DNA at the heart of the movie-going experience then Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men is proof, finally, that when it comes to popular cinema people can, and do, vote with their feet. The film, sometimes harrowing and bleak, sometimes soft and celebratory, is about an eerily resonant near-future world of neo-fascist government, rampant terrorism and mass sterility. It stars Clive Owen and Michael Caine and has been, to say the least, ‘modestly’ marketed by its understandably cautious studio Universal – released in a mere 1,200 theatres across America (compared to an average 3,000 for a mainstream release).

And yet, over the course of one weekend the movie has been deluged with overwhelmingly ecstatic critical reaction, plus it managed a higher Box Office take, per screen, than any other movie currently on release. It has clearly become, in the words of LL Cool J, something like a phenomenon.

“I’m really pleased, of course, the way people have reacted to it,” says 45-year-old Cuaron, who is on the Bafta long list of nominations for the movie. “I know that the plot elements made it hard viewing for some people, but I think a lot more people are concerned with the issues in it. These are times of transformation in the world, and I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that.”

Cuaron, who studied film in his native Mexico and gained international acclaim for his low-budget dramedy Y tu mama tambien, suggests that it might be the element of hope amidst all the bleakness in Children of Men that has audiences hooked. “The film is really about hope, after all,” he says. “Because without hope there’s no chance for transformation.”

He says that he’s proud of making the Bafta long list of nominations, but warns against getting too caught up in the helter skelter of awards season. “Awards are just part of the industry,” he says. “But they’re not as important as the process of making the film. And certain organisations have more credibility than others. Bafta, thankfully, is one of those organisations. And I think it’s a community that I, as someone who lives in London, belong to.”

The other community that claims Cuaron is, naturally, the Mexican film industry. Together with directors Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), he has become part of a New Wave of Mexican film talent. “I consider Alejandro and Guillermo friends and collaborators, and I like to think that our movies have ideas in common. In a way, we’re sticking our forks into each others salads. But I don’t know if we’re actually a ‘wave’. We’re just three people.”

Despite the obvious and now justified success of Children of Men, Cuaron says that his next movie is going to be something small, low budget, and filmed entirely in Mexico. “It’s important for me not to do the movies that I think I should do,” he says. “I need to do the movies that I ‘need’ to do. And that’s the only thing that keeps me going.”

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