District 9 Box Office Success, Sequel in Works
Sci-fi Documentary Style Film Draws Inspiration from Apartheid
Aug 23, 2009
Science fiction films often serve as commentaries about society’s flaws, which is the case with this innovative film which tackles racism, segregation, government bureaucracy and weapons testing, just to name a few. It also poses the question: if humans can’t get along with each other, how can we get along with extraterrestrials, should they ever land? How will they be treated - as enemies, friends, or refugees?
District 9-Storyline
This thought-provoking film was directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson, who is most noted for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The movie starts out in documentary style with an unfolding of events through newsreels and interviews about the landing of aliens in Johannesburg, South Africa thirty years ago.
District 9 is not a film about an alien attack or invasion. Instead of being hostile, the aliens appear weakened and helpless. They are evacuated from their stranded ship and treated as refugees. They have for years been interred in a camp called District 9, a ghetto area overrun by poverty and crime. Derogatorily labeled “prawns” because of their appearance, the aliens are restricted to certain areas and are barred from entering “humans only” zones.
The film then takes a more action-oriented form as it shifts from documentary mode to follows the main character, Wikus van der Merwe. Now, thirty years later, his job as a government official is to evict the aliens from their current interment camp and force them to relocate to another area. When Wikus, played by Sharlto Copley, becomes a fugitive, he must seek help from one of the aliens he was hired to evict. They must evade the evil MNU, a private corporation intent on exploiting advanced alien weapon technology.
Alive in Joberg
District 9 is based on a 2005 short titled Alive in Joburg. This six-minute short, also directed by Neill Blomkamp, was the fore-runner to the larger project. Alive in Joberg as well as the District 9 story parallels actual events that happened during the history of South Africa. From 1948 to 1994, during the apartheid, the South African government declared an area of Cape Town called District 6 a “whites only” zone and forced 60,000 black residents to relocate. Blomkamp drew from his experience of growing up in South Africa during those troubled times. Real interviews and footage of a slum area of Johannesburg were used in the making of the films. The use of real footage of the overcrowded and poverty-ridden ghetto as the setting for the alien interrment camp gives the film a stark sense of realism.
Sequel Planned
Because District 9 has done so well at the box office, a follow-up movie, possibly titled District 10, is currently in the works. The open-ended conclusion to District 9 leaves many unanswered questions and definitely paves the way for a sequel.
 |
