District 9 Poster from Filmofilia.com
Neil Blomkamp’s debut feature film is a smashing success. At a cost $30 Million to make, the film earned more on its first weekend ($37 Million) and to date has earned over $115 Million world-wide. The movie stands as s testament to the quality of “undiscovered” talent that exists in the film industry and speaks directly to the reality that a “megastar” is not needed to tell or sell a feature film.
Blomkamp’s tale is a serious look at Apartheid and the plight of refugees as seen through the lens of cricket-men from outer space. The “Prawns”, as the aliens are called, are a mirror of a majority modern human society. The millions of aliens who come on the mother-ship are sickly, starving, malnourished lot; they are largely devoid of the intelligence that has them cast across the stars. Humanity takes a stand for these visitors and provides them with food and shelter on the ground beneath their hovering ship. This ground is a slum in Johannesburg known as District 9 (a most direct reference to the actual District 6 of Apartheid infamy).
What follows is a steady moving story that speaks to the problems of encampment and segregation; governmental mistakes, multi-national corporate greed, and the age old human fear of the unfamiliar. It is masterfully put together and beautifully layered. A more perfect and gritty sci-fi film has not been produced in years. Does the story pull punches? Yes. Does this story have plausibility holes? Certainly. Does the story have pieces that don’t quite fit snug? Absolutely. But what sci-fi set in a “current day” scenario doesn’t? If you can see past the flaws (and what geek can’t) you should find a thoughtful and introspective story that asks a serious question about man’s inhumanity to man.
*** More, with spoilers, below the fold. ***
Partial Plot Summary
The movie begins as a mockumentary featuring shaky cam footage of the films protagonist and reluctant hero: MNU Field Operative Wikus van de Merwe (convincingly played by Sharlto Copley). This mockumentary style is repeated at times throughout to move the story and provide an outside prospective of events. The net effect is set to look and feel like a documentary into which the reality of the situation has been spliced. This is very effective at demonstrating a critical point lost in today’s media: they report what they think happened, never what actually did.
The documentary portion begins relating the story of the mother-ship and how it came to rest above the city of Johannesburg. Reports are mixed as to why the ship came to a stop, but after three months of this behemoth being suspended seemingly without power over the frightened South African metropolis, the government of South Africa (with UIO [aka UN] backing) decides to cut its way into the ship.
What is found inside the ship is a “humanitarian” crisis of extreme proportions. 1.2 million aliens are sickly and starving in the hold of ship. They appear completely ignorant of what has happened to them or how to improve their situation. In response the UIO (in powered blue hats brandishing the globe and laurel) decides that we must help these aliens. The aliens are moved out of the ship and into the slums beneath, an area of Johannesburg known as District 9. In the 28 years that pass (1982 to 2010), the aliens are come to be called “Prawns” and are increasingly segregated and debased by their human neighbors.
The Nigerians who had previously (and now co-occupy) the slum are largely lawless. Because they are allowed to leave the slum (something the aliens are not allowed to do) they engage in black market activities, trying to gain access to alien technology with the exorbitant trade of cat food. Cat food for reasons unknown is a highly addictive substance to the Prawn. A fact exploited by both criminal elements and the multinational corporation (cleverly named Multi-National United) that runs the district.
Alien technology is functionally useless to the humans as it take a biological trigger that only the Prawn can provide.
The live action in the movie centers around the planned relocation of alien refugees from District 9 to District 10 a purposefully built camp 240 kilometers away from the city. Our protagonist, Wikus, is promoted from pseudo desk jockey to director of the relocation operation. He, with an armed escort, is sent in 24hrs in advance of the forced relocation in order to obtain legal agreements from the aliens so that they can be legitimately evicted.
The trip into the slum contains many events, and in attempt to not spoil it for readers, I will purposefully leave out some of the more sensational happenings.
In serving the aliens with these evictions, Wikus stumbles upon an alien in the midst of distilling a mysterious black fluid from discarded alien technology they have collected.
An alien named Christopher Johnson, manages to avoid Wikus, but his associate is not as lucky. In a warrantless raid of the associates shack, the MNU discovers the lab (a definite no-no), a weapons cache, and the small cylinder containing the fluid. Wikus is immediately distrustful of the cylinder, insisting it is a weapon. In his bumbling with the device, Field Operative van de Merwe sprays himself in the face with the black fluid. This sets the stage for a trip into the surreal.
After returning to the office and subsequently his home, an ill Wikus is taken to the hospital. He awakes to a doctor removing bandages from his arm. The horror! Wikus van de Merwe’s left hand is now a foreign instrument. His hand has become that of a Prawn. Almost instantly Wikus is crammed in a body bag and spirited away to the MNU laboratory. Deep in the bowels of the MNU corporate complex, executives (including Wikus’ father-in-law) are in agreement that the opportunity to harvest Wikus body to gain access to (and subsequently sell) alien weaponry. Wikus, who is still alive, does not agree with this. Eventually Wikus forces his way out of the complex and becomes a fugitive.
Wikus is plastered all over the news in fabricated stories. He has nowhere to hide except for District 9. While in the district his transformation into an alien continues. Wikus seeks out Christopher Johnson because in the earlier canvassing of the district, Christopher was the only alien to display an advanced intelligence.
Field Operative van de Merwe learns that Christopher Johnson is working to get the mother-ship powered again so that the aliens can go home. Johnson also tells van de Merwe that on the mother-ship the technology exists to fix him, but the now lost canister is needed. Wikus discovered that the large piece of the alien ship that fell to Earth and was never found is actually buried under Johnsons shack. Wikus is overjoyed, and they hatch a “suicide mission” to retrieve the canister from the MNU laboratory.
As the story moves into its third act, the forces of MNU attempting to capture the fugitive Wikus, the Nigerians attempting to seize Wikus for the same reason, and the attempt of Johnson and his son to escape from Earth all come to a head.
The movie ends with the mockumentary summarizing the events in the piecemeal fashion that only the news and experts can.
The Metaphor of Prawns, Refugees, and Apartheid
District 9 is a direct reference to District 6, an inner-city area of Cape Town declared “whites only” in 1966. The government of South Africa forcibly removed some 60,000 people and confiscated their property simply because they were Black. But this was not the only time citizens of South Africa were forcibly relocated because of race or abject poverty. Currently, over 20,000 South Africans live in “informal” settlements such as the Joe Slovo Settlement in Cape Town. The property rights of these settlements are in dispute (much like the Slums of Mumbai) because of the differences between squatter’s rights and deed holder’s rights.
People become displaced for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons a healthy and stable society can prevent, but in the case of international refugees (or intergalactic ones) the cause is nearly always beyond our control.
An argument that creeps most sinisterly into the rights of refugees is the claim that these people are being allowed to stay on the property of someone else, and that because of this the displaced persons (henceforth: refugees) or refugees should be grateful for whatever accommodations their hosts provide. This position is a particularly insidious one because it casts the refugee in the light of a burden or worse. It is human nature for once charitable actions freely given to over time become an instrument of indebtedness. And rightly, how could it not? If someone comes to your home and sits on your furniture and eats of your food, do you not tire of them? Even the most humbled and giving among us have no patience for sloth and atrophy on the back of our investment. To wit, does not the most basic of tribes require that all members support at least themselves? What then are the leaders of these communities to do? The answer is not an easy one to find. But it is a question that should be asked. We must acknowledge that our neighbors may find themselves in ruin. If our neighbors seek freedom on our shores, is it not in our best interest to try and provide it? But it is never that simple. Fear of other cultures and other value sets cause us to act cautiously and even negatively towards those who need our care and compassion the most. And it is right that people be fearful of an influx of strangers destitute and without much in the way of capital or skill, few things can be more detrimental to a society at large. This is why, without meaning to do so, the saviors and protectors of these refugees grow to be their haters and tormentors in the end.
Whether the refugees are aliens in District 9, Nigerians in South Africa, Iraqis in Jordan, or New Orleanais in FEMA Trailers the message is the same: it is inhuman to take from those who have nothing and yet only ask to be free.
Racism, Xenophobia, and Derogatory Terms
The term “Prawn” used to describe the aliens is a reference to a species of King Cricket in Johannesburg the Parktown Prawn. These crickets are massive (commonly over 5 cm long) and numerous. They are considered a plague in South Africa. By stating that the aliens “look like Prawns” and calling them “Prawns” the South Africans are dehumanizing them to the point of common insects, even though they are a space-faring race. Another way the movie subtly hints at racism in South Africa is the clicking language used by the Aliens, this is very similar to the clicks used in the Bantu language. These are two ways the xenophobia and racism of South Africa are shown in the film.
Plot Holes And Picky Points
Many reviews point out that the spaceship hovering over the city without apparent power for twenty plus years is a complete violation of the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics. Get over it. It is a movie. These are aliens who travel around outer-space. It is not that hard to believe that they have figured a way around that who gravity thing.
The flight of Wikus as a fugitive seems to be all too easy; but remember he is not being chased by police, but a corporation involved in illicit activities.
Another picky point is the limited nature of the conflict between Wikus and the MNU security forces both in the corporate center and in District 9. Yeah. This is a bit lame, but if this was pursued to be “more realistic” it would have interrupted the story too much, dragging it down and also driving up the cost of production. This also is true of the argument that the other aliens are seemingly disinterested in the actions of Wikus and Christopher Johnson at the movies end.
In Summary
In summary the movie has all that makes a great sci-fi with none of the pomp and circumstance of a high dollar cast or a special effects budget that just tries too damn hard to make fantastical things look real. The grimy, gritty feel of the film; the very real location it was filmed at (the slum settlement of Chiawelo where the residents were forcibly relocated from in recent civil unrest); and the very human, relatable alien subjects all combine to do what sci-fi does best: tell a timeless fable by stripping away the unnecessary and exaggerating the core points. Congratulations Mr. Blomkamp and Mr. Jackson. Job well done.