Additional information
Code 46 is a love story set in a Brave New World-type near-future where
cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints.
People
cannot travel unless they have "papelles," a special travel permit issued by
the totalitarianistic government, the "Sphinx". Outside these cities, the desert
has taken over and shanty towns are jammed with non-citizens - people
without papelles forced to live primitive lives. William is a family man who
works as a government investigator. When he is sent to Shanghai to solve a
case of fake papelles, he meets a woman named Maria. Although he
realizes she is behind the forgeries, he cannot help but fall completely in
love
with her. He hides her crime and they have a wild, passionate affair that can
only last as long as his papelles: 24 hours. Back home, William is obessed
with the memory of Maria. When the original investigation is inevitably re-
opened a week later and William is sent back to finish the work he started,
he
tracks her down, only to discover she has been accused of a Code 46
violation and any further relationship is impossible.