District 9: Still has a lot to tell us

District 9

By Alberto Sclaverano

Film Review

District 9 (2009) It is now regarded as one of the best sci-fi films of the 2000s. It is set in an alternate timeline in which world history has been changed by the arrival of an alien ship stationed above Johannesburg.

The extraterrestrial vehicle was partially broken, and the aliens (giant, humanoid-like insects nicknamed “prawns” by humans) were incapable of leaving Earth. The South African government and the UN dealt with the aliens, who are sentient beings, but mostly incapable of communicating with humans and less technologically advanced than people originally thought, with terrifying methods. A million creatures are located in a big, slum-like refugee camp known

as “District 9”, where basic human rights are not applied.

The movie cuts to the present, in which “District 9” is a reality known by everyone. The “prawns” are abused by government officials, desperately to contain their number and to find a way to unlock the technology that activates the aliens’ space and military technology.

The environment around District 9 has been degraded, with violence, prostitution, organized crime, and drug dealings spreading fast between aliens and humans. The main character, Wikus (played by Sharlto Copley) is a cynic human bureaucrat who regularly inspects aliens’ slums to seize material regarded as illegal. When he is accidentally infected by an alien’s substance and starts to mutate in one of the “prawns”, he will start to see the horror inflicted for decades by humans on the aliens from the other side. In the end, he will fight to free the creatures.

While the movie is told in the form of a sci-fi adventure story, with frequent and bloody action set pieces, its core is a disturbing and sad reflection about racial segregation, with a clear reference to Apartheid and South Africa’s dark past, the condition of refugees, and the damages inflicted to people and the environment in the developing world by the predatory policy of the rich countries.

The metaphor of the aliens as the refugees/poor people is as disturbing today as it was when District 9 was released, and possibly, even more, considering the last global trends of xenophobia and far-right politics all around the world.

In the movie, the degradation and the pollution of the environment seem to be directly connected to the systemic violation of human rights. “District 9” is portrayed as a nightmarish, hell-on-Earth-like place, but in the end, is no more different from real refugees’ camps in war zones or from the poorest slums in the global South. The “prawns” of the movie are capable of emotions and feel affection for each other, yet they are treated like animals and like a “problem

to be dealt with” by humans. They are never perceived by governments and military bureaucrats as other people. The fact that the aliens have arrived in Africa has made it even more simple for

the developed nations to treat them as a “Third World problem”.

“District 9” was South African director Neill Blomkamp’s debut film. Produced by Peter Jackson (well-known all around the world for his The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the King Kong 2005 remake), it was made for a 30 million budget, a relatively small amount of money for a science fiction blockbuster, and grossed more than 210 million at the worldwide box office.

The increasingly devastating consequences on the ecosystem and the environment by the continuously growing “District 9” is not something that seems to affect the powerful and the Western politicians, which are barely alluded to in Blomkamp’s film. Alongside the director’s

subsequent film, Elysium (2013), District 9 has proven that an adult, politically oriented kind of science fiction is still possible and that even a blockbuster can be used to denounce the most tragic tendencies of our times.