The City of Lost Children (2 points)

 The City of Lost Children shows us a nightmarish reflection of our own world. Nightmarish is a very appropriate term considering how important dreams are in the film.  One of the central characters of the film is a man who steals dreams from children to slow down his aging. I see this as a reflection of how society breaks us down at an early age, making us abandon our dreams to keep the system from falling apart. This is a system, of course, that only benefits those in power. How many of us wanted to be astronauts, or something fantastic like that, but gave up on that dream because of school, or work, or money? That’s what this film makes literal. Children are forced to bring money to their teacher if they don’t want to be punished. It’s an exaggeration of how regular children aren’t allowed to enjoy their childhoods because of capitalism and similar systems. I hate how relevant that feels during this pandemic.

 


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