Part dystopian fable, part sci-fi comedy, Sophie Barthes’ “The Pod Generation”, starring Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor, poses a delicate question: what if it were possible to outsource pregnancies and have babies born in “pods”?


In a future described as “very near”, where artificial intelligence is everywhere, a couple – Rachel and Alvy – decide to have a child. But rather than look after the child alone, which would unbalance their harmony as a couple and hinder Rachel’s professional advancement, they decide to opt for a new technological solution: have the child carried by an external device, a kind of electronic egg, a POD. Starring Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Twelve Years a Slave), “The Pod Generation” is a sci-fi satire directed by French director Sophie Barthes (whose 2014 adaptation of Madame Bovary starred Mia Wasikowska).


In the spirit of the recent Disney+ film “L’Horloge” by Alexis Jacknow (in which a futuristic company makes women want to have a child), the director uses the prism of the anticipation film (but also of comedy) to invite us to reflect on the question of parenthood, in the age of parity.
In the world proposed by Sophie Barthes, we can watch the fertilisation of the egg by the spermatozoon, and entrust our pregnancy to a private company. The film moves on to another subject, that of a world in which humanity is becoming a commodity. In the age of uberization, where there’s an app to solve every problem, why not outsource fatherhood ?

At times didactic in the manner of a “Black Mirror” episode, “The Pod Generation” doesn’t always go as far in its ethical and moral reflections as its subject would have led us to hope. Nonetheless, it remains an amusing and original science-fiction tale with meticulous art direction, cultivating the legacy of Spike Jonze’s “Her”.

“The Pod Generation”
In cinemas from October 25.