chribren "Z.P.G.", also called "Zero Population Growth", is a Sci-Fi/Thriller/Dystopian film from 1972. This is Michael Campus' directional debut.Basic plot: Due to bad pollution, every people have to wear a breathing mask whenever they have to go outdoors. But the story doesn't get better when the government makes a ban on giving birth to any child for 30 years, because of the Earth being overpopulated. Breaking this law results in death penalty by suffocation inside an unbreakable glass.Russ and Carol McNeil (played by Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin), who work at a museum recreating life in the 20th century, are not satisfied with the substitute robot baby they've got. So they end up getting a real baby. And they must keep it secret from getting discovered.This film is a good dystopian film having been made in the UK. The film's scenario itself is somewhat grim and disturbing. The story is a little bit original compared to most other Science Fiction movies I've seen earlier, because it's not often we get movies about a ban on child birth. Well made, Michael Campus.For special interested, it is not usual to see the global-like MPAA logo literally (SURPRISE) covering the whole screen after the end credits have finished scrolling. Truth to be told, I have not seen this logo that big as it was in this movie.If you like watching Science Fiction/Dystopian movies in general, then this film might be a good choice to check out. My overall rating has to be 7/10.

Scott LeBrun In the future, overpopulation has become such an issue that those in authority take some pretty drastic steps. Any couple that refuses to get with the program and stop having kids will be punished with public execution. Instead, people have to make do with dolls that prove to be highly inadequate replacement for flesh & blood children. Russ and Carol McNeil (Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin) decide to defy the law and do their best to raise a child in secret. Of course, it's only a matter of time before they're found out. Their neighbours & friends the Bordens (Don Gordon and Diane Cilento) learn their secret and their desire to be a part of this childs' life only serves to permanently scar the friendship.While obviously done on a low budget, this is dealt with fairly successfully by having the outside world in this future be overcome by smog, forcing people to often wear masks. This gives this modest, reasonably entertaining production a certain degree of atmosphere. However, the film is never quite as involving as one would like. It's a little too slow and a little too static. It does succeed at being somewhat disturbing at times: first, whenever the authorities bring around their special killing domes, and second, when Russ goes to the library to learn what he can about premature birth, raising the suspicions of those in charge and leading to his being tortured.Filmed on location in Denmark, "Z.P.G." gets by mostly on the performances of its four principal actors. Reed is commanding with his typical whispery delivery, and Chaplin is endearing as the young woman wanting a human child more than anything. The lovely Cilento and the under-rated Gordon are equally fine as the envious friends.There is a sombre quality to the whole thing yet by the conclusion it does create a sense of hope and peace. With a bit more style and energy, this really could have been something special. As it is, it's good, if not great, and it does have a place among genre films of the time that dealt with the idea of dystopian futures.Six out of 10.

tov73 This movie is one rarity in my country scarcely here are copies in DVD or Blu Ray almost in the 2006 was edited one cheap version rated to 89 minutes of the 105 minutes of it's original duration by Vellavision with quality of image very bad.The Spanish public know very well whose are Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin but them at present day to ignore the existence of this film, I as fan of the science fiction was one of them until that I read the novel by Max Ehrlich when I was a child.The book is excellent for me so much as the film, and it's a good material to make a remake if someone producer wants to make one new version of this history.It's a movie that must be revised of it's landing forgotten and discredited by critic and public in it's time.The story is merit to second opportunity in the actual times.

Deusvolt In the not too distant future, overpopulation with its resultant pollution has made most of the earth unfit for habitation. A portion of humanity has retreated into a hermetically sealed city. By edict couples are prohibited from having children. Exempt are those born Before Edict and the initials B.E. are invisibly engraved on those children's foreheads visible only under a special light wielded by law enforcers.Deprivation of maternity has driven many women to psychosis. There is a scene where women scream at another woman with a young child "Baby! Baby!" and the authorities move in. It turns out that the child has a B.E on his forehead.Despite the danger, the characters played by Reed and Geraldine Chaplin decide to have a baby anyway. Gripping was the scene when Reed was researching via a virtual library on how to perform a baby delivery. He was of course being monitored by a "Big Sister" computer of the authorities. How he got to the sections about maternity and delivery is interesting. He first surfed through sections about some obscure aspect of monastic art,Premonstratensian art. From there he managed to navigate to pregnancy and delivery. The computer, however, sensed that he drifted into the taboo topic of childbirth. Reed's chair clamped onto him sending volts of electricity into his body. He pretended to be disgusted at the videos he saw of childbirth and alleged that he was about to report and protest the presence of such "filth" in the library. His acting here was notable as he seemed to be really in pain with his face oily and perspiring. The leader of the civilization rides in some kind of whimsical toy-like flying saucer that plays "Pop Goes the Weasel" every time he makes an appearance. The tone, texture and general treatment of this film is both amusing and unsettling at the same time. It is what makes it a fine one.The horrors governments would be willing to perpetrate to achieve Zero Population Growth was accurately predicted in this movie. Compulsory mass abortion was (is?) practiced in China in the '80s. There too was the testimony of a Chinese lady doctor who escaped to the West that babies who were delivered live illegally (more than two children for the couple) were murdered by injecting poisons into the fontanel. Later China amended the two-child decree to only one. During Indira Gandhi's regime in India, Rajiv (her son who later on became PM himself), regularly went on patrol gathering young men and having them forcibly sterilized. And of course, women who went to public health clinics for any reason were summarily sterilized once it was determined that they already had children. But why pick on China and India, abortion in the U.S. and in most of the EU is also done on a massive scale under the alleged "right to privacy" and of "freedom of choice."If you are intrigued by societies that seal themselves off from the rest of the world and humanity, check out Zardoz (1974 with Sean Connery) and Logan's Run (1976 with Michael York). There is also, of course, The Time Machine of which I know of at least two film versions. I like the older George Pal production because of its lush texture and the beautiful actors (Yvette Mimieux and Rod Taylor). The Lost Horizon also has two versions one made in 1937 and the other in 1973. The newer version is the better one with Peter Finch and Liv Ullman although the parts with George Kennedy (singing at that) and Sally Kellerman made it somewhat corny.