Sci-fi thriller District 9 zooms in for a close-up on injustice of a different sort—where the victims are extraterrestrials.
Science fiction has always been ripe ground for political allegory and the new film District 9 builds on that foundation with a spin on apartheid and refugee treatment—the subjects in this case being extraterrestrials living in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neil Blomkamp, the film opens as a pseudo-documentary, explaining the arrival 20 years ago of the aliens, who are now stranded, and the resulting tension their presence places on the already volatile area. Living in the slums beneath their broken-down spacecraft, they are targeted by the locals and are soon to be sent packing to an outside camp by the Multi-National United (MNU) corporation.
Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a nerdy but well-connected MNU field operative, cavalierly goes about issuing eviction notices until he knocks on the wrong door, sending his life spinning and placing him at the moral center of the film. The audience soon discovers MNU’s intentions of humanitarian aid and refuge are ruses for another plan.
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