''Z.P.G.'' (short for "

Zero Population Growth Zero population growth, sometimes abbreviated ZPG, is a condition of demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither grows nor declines; that is, the number of births plus in-migrants equals the number of deaths ...

") is a 1972 Danish-American

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstell ...

directed by

Michael Campus Michael Campus (March 28, 1935 – May 15, 2015) was an American director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for directing the 1973 film ''The Mack''. He died on May 15, 2015, at his home in Encino, California of melanoma. Filmograph ...

and starring

Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...

and

Geraldine Chaplin Geraldine Leigh Chaplin (born July 31, 1944) is an American actress. She is the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, the first of eight children with his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill. After beginnings in dance and modeling, she turned her attention to ac ...

. It was inspired by the best-selling 1968 non-fiction book ''

The Population Bomb ''The Population Bomb'' is a 1968 book co-authored by Stanford University Professor emeritus Paul R. Ehrlich and Stanford senior researcher emeritus in conservation biology Anne Howland Ehrlich. It predicted worldwide famine due to overpopulat ...

'', by

Paul R. Ehrlich Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932) is an American biologist known for his warnings about the consequences of population growth and limited resources. He is the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of S ...

. The film concerns an overpopulated future Earth whose

world government World government is the concept of a single political authority with jurisdiction over all humanity. It is conceived in a variety of forms, from tyrannical to democratic, which reflects its wide array of proponents and detractors. A world gove ...

executes those who violate a 30-year ban on having children. Filmed in Denmark, the film is almost entirely set-bound featuring art direction designed to reflect a bleak, oppressive future.

Plot

Set in the future, the Earth has become severely polluted (people need to wear breathing masks when outside) with severe overpopulation affecting available resources. Because of the permanent thick smog that has settled over the dismal cities that now cover the Earth's entire surface, all animals – even common household pets - are extinct; people eat tasteless bright-colored paste out of plastic containers. To reduce the world's population, the world's government decrees that no children may be born for the next 30 years. Breaking this law will result in a death penalty for both the parents as well as the newborn. Brainwashing and robot substitutes are used to end the yearning for children, with the death penalty as the ultimate deterrent, by being placed under a plastic dome and suffocated to death. Couples of fertile age visit "Babyland" and are given life-size animatronic children instead. Russ (

) and Carol McNeil (

) work in a museum recreating life in the 20th century. Carol is desperate for a child and when she conceives she avoids the abortion machine installed in their bathroom to remain pregnant. After the child's birth, the couple must shield the baby from being discovered. Once Carol decides to break the law and have a baby, they must not only avoid the prying eyes of the Big Brother-like government, but also the growing jealousy of their own friends. Neighbors finding a couple with a ''real'' child will go into the streets screaming "baby, baby," until authorities show up. When neighbours George ( Don Gordon) and Edna Borden (

Diane Cilento Diane Cilento (2 April 1932 – 6 October 2011) was an Australian actress. She is best known for her film roles in ''Tom Jones'' (1963), which earned her an Academy Award nomination, ''Hombre'' (1967) and '' The Wicker Man'' (1973). She also r ...

) find out about the baby, their initial offer to help conceal the baby leads quickly to trouble. Jealousy and envy arises as the Bordens want to share the baby as if it is a new car. The McNeils and the Bordens begin to fight over the baby and the Bordens then seek to keep the child for themselves. Finally, the McNeils are captured and placed under one of the state's execution domes, but the couple, along with the baby, manage to escape by digging underground, making their way through darkened tunnels in a raft to a remote island where there is no visible pollution. However, the whole island may still be in a radioactive state, as it was used to bury old nuclear missiles in 1978.

Cast

as Russ McNeil *

as Carol McNeil * Don Gordon as George Borden *

as Edna Borden *

David Markham David Markham (3 April 1913 – 15 December 1983) was an English stage and film actor for over forty years. Markham was born Peter Basil Harrison in Wick, Worcestershire and died in Hartfield, East Sussex. In 1937 he married Olive Dehn (1914 ...

as Doctor Herrick *

Bill Nagy Bill Nagy (born October 26, 1987) is a former American football center and guard who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the University of Wisconsin. He was also a member of the ...

as The President *

Sheila Reid Sheila Reid (born 21 December 1937) is a Scottish actress, known for playing Madge Harvey in the ITV sitcom ''Benidorm'' (2007–2016). An original member of the Royal National Theatre in 1963, she played Bianca in the National's 1965 film v ...

as Mary Herrick *

Aubrey Woods Aubrey Harold Woods (9 April 1928 – 7 May 2013) was an English actor. Biography and career Woods was born on 9 April 1928 in Edmonton, Middlesex and grew up in nearby Palmers Green. He was educated at the Latymer School. His first fil ...

as Doctor Mallory * Wayne Rodda as Metromart Salesman * Ditte Maria Wiberg as Telescreen Operator *

Birgitte Federspiel Birgitte Federspiel (6 September 1925 – 2 February 2005) was a Danish film, theater and TV actress. She won two Bodil Awards for best actress in 1955 ('' Ordet'') and 1959 (''En fremmed banker på'').Frank De Felitta Frank Paul De Felitta (August 3, 1921 – March 29, 2016) was an author, producer, pilot and film director. He was most well known for his novels '' Audrey Rose'' and ''The Entity.'' Life and career Frank De Felitta was born in The Bronx, New ...

and

Max Ehrlich Max Michaelis Ehrlich (7 December 1892 – 1 October 1944) was a German actor, screenwriter, and director on the German theater, comedy and cabaret scene of the 1930s. Ehrlich began his career in the 1920s at various theatres, including leadin ...

, inspired by Paul Ehrlich's ''The Population Bomb.'' A year prior to the film's release, Max Ehrlich published the science fiction novel, ''The Edict'', based on the screenplay. In the novel, the earth's resources have been strained to the limit, and in many parts of the world cannibalism and food riots are commonplace. Seeking a solution to this crisis, the leaders of WorldGov meet in emergency session. Their computers spin through billions of facts, and the reports are more than disquieting - they are chilling. Further growth of the population is unthinkable, and the leaders finally settle on the only possible solution, which is soon announced by the World Gov satellite: To give the world some semblance of normality, realistic mechanical babies are devised to pacify the maternal instincts of 10 billion women. But to Carol, the very idea of accepting one of the robot infants is abhorrent. She wants and needs a ''real'' child, and this slowly becomes an obsession.

Special effects

Derek Meddings Derek Meddings (15 January 1931 – 10 September 1995) was a British film and television special effects designer. He was initially noted for his work on the "Supermarionation" TV puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the 1 ...

created the life-size realistic animatronic children for the film.

Awards

Geraldine Chaplin won Best Actress at the 1972

Sitges Film Festival The Sitges Film Festival ( ca, Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, links=no) is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Spain, specialized in fantasy and horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear ...

for her performance.

References

External links