District 9
Heh, this was a type of alien visitation film I didn’t expect. Aside from the relatively modest budget, little-known director and no-name cast, it’s also one of the most unusual pieces of sci-fi I’ve seen in a while. It’s great to see familiar territory shaken up and given a new spin: it’s even better when the story takes on a lot of more terrestrial issues and throws personal drama into the mix. To me it does with aliens what Eve no Jikan does with robots.
The cinematography is deliberately gritty, with a Cloverfield-esque hand-held camera documentary style and a setting that’s very different from those of typical Hollywood movies. The alien spaceship arrives not above some photogenic locale such as New York – a fact that the film uses as an opportunity to distance itself from the likes of Independence Day – but Johannesburg, and the aliens end up as leaderless refugees rather than conquerors.
The extraordinary tack that District 9 takes doesn’t stop there. It turns out that the setting is not just geographically convenient for the South African director Neill Blomkamp: it makes no secret of its intentions in being allegorical and making references to real-life places and historical events. The issues of segregation and xenophobia run strong and deep, and the poignancy of this premise makes its moral messages all the more powerful.
The human population of the area is quick to voice its reservations concerning the extraterrestrial settlers, and the aliens are soon confined in the residential camp of the film’s title. Since the authorities are unsure of what to do with these apparently harmless yet mysterious and numerous creatures, it soon becomes a lawless slum and the decision is made to evict the aliens and move them into a more ‘suitable’ area by employing the Multinational United (MNU), a private contractor.
We never really know why they are here, or even if they are friendly or not. That is the whole point, of course: some humans can converse with the aliens in their own language but little effort is made by any of the characters to answer these questions. The outcome (which would be the most likely one in the current world climate) is not one in which we wage war or try to enslave them: instead, a noncomittal attempt is made to placate and contain them, while politicians and parties with more vested interests argue behind the scenes. If it’s possible to make an alien visitation film realistic, I reckon District 9 is one that succeeds.
The man chosen to evict the aliens is a hapless office worker named Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley); a man in all likelihood chosen for his expendable status in the eyes of his employers rather than because of any particular qualifications for the job. Initially he’s portrayed as well-intentioned yet clueless, devoted to his wife but one who follows orders without considering the bigger picture or the morality of what he’s doing. As he becomes inexorably trapped in the complexities of the eviction procedure his role becomes very different but even more pivotal; by the end I started to admire him as a hero, which is the polar opposite of my opinion of him beforehand.
Some of the scenes are pretty shocking: the aliens are referred to derogatorily as ‘prawns’, the eviction at the hands of the MNU sidesteps any legislation that would normally protect the civil rights of humans and we witness incidents that amount to genocide as Wikus and his collegues oppress the aliens in a realistically chilling way before cheerfully reporting a job well done to the camera. The MNU turns out to be a big player in the weapons trade, which adds a very distasteful aspect to the operation: the aliens are the prime target for exploitation, and this soon includes Wikus too.
The final act of the film is more action-orientated and the ending is very open; there’s room for a sequel but any follow-up would probably be very different in content and tone. As it is, the first two thirds cover a lot of ground in Wikus’ transition from spineless chump to courageous champion for justice; the portrayal of the MNU was a little too far into the conventional stereotype of the unscrupulous corporate monster for my liking, although it’s hard to imagine the screenplay managing otherwise without a serious re-write.
Reading around, many aspects of District 9 took on even greater relevance. Some of the locations for filming were genuine slum areas going through evictions of their occupants; many of the interviews with locals were lifted from real-life recordings for Blomkamp’s earlier film Alive in Joburg; even the alien internment camp itself references District 6, a particular region of Cape Town which went through similar troubles during the Apartheid.
The fractured and complex nature of South African society actually meshes really well with the fantastical addition of extraterrestrials: for the most part the elements thrown into this thought-provoking and occasionally depressing melting pot of disparate themes hold together to deliver a surprisingly character-driven tale in a refreshingly different setting. It might be a little too hard-hitting for some viewers to stomach but considering its humble origins this is an example of intelligent science fiction done well.
