Spoiler Alert: District 9

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District 9 is an independent science fiction film released in 2009. The film was inspired by the events of district 6, Cape Town during Apartheid. It won the 2010 Saturn Award for Best International Film presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. It was also nominated for four Academy Awards in 2010. The film is shot in a mock-documentary style follows the story of Vikus, a man who works for MNU, who has been appointed to notify the alien inhabitants of district 9 that they were being evacuated and moved to a facility more suited to their needs in district 10. The premise of the show is that an alien ship crash landed in Johannesburg some 20 years ago and the aliens that came out of it, Prawns, as they were called, were left to fend for themselves in world where they didn’t understand anyone and no one understood them. They seem to have caused fear, and public discord and were segregated from the community.

The film seems to have been made as a form of pointing and laughing at the prudence of human society today, with their conceit about their acceptance of the “other”. It brings not only reminds us of the atrocities of apartheid using images of cafes and public spaces made only for humans and not for Prawns, and their “population control” but also brings to light the latent issue of xenophobia that many of us still hold. By showing mock interviews of people saying things like “If they were from a different country, we would understand, but they aren’t even from this planet.” And portraying the attitude with which the people speak with the Prawns as though they were just objects of observation and experimentation and not living beings, the film emphasised the problem with our understanding and acceptance of races and people that we do not understand. Even when we accept people that do not look like us, we only do so if they act like us. Today, a black man, wearing a suit and tie, holding a briefcase and off to his respectable job would be treated with awe – look at that man who was meant for a life of crime, changing himself and becoming better, becoming like us white folk (apologies for the racist stereotype used here, no offense was meant). A large population of our species still struggles to understand the difference between accepting differences and making up for differences. The film puts us face to face with violent aliens with stronger abilities than us, exactly what colonisers were faced with when they set off sail. Not because anyone who isn't white is violent, but because we see violence we don’t understand and we don’t seem to want to understand and we become afraid. No one stops to consider the fact they also have needs of their own.

You might question the fact that because the species spoke a different language, humans and them would not be able to understand each other. To be honest, I felt similarly while watching the movie as it seemed as the when the MNU workers talked to the Prawns, they didn’t seem to understand each other’s words but relied completely on body language. Later in the film this conjecture of mine was proven wrong. The humans and Prawns although can’t physically verbalise each other’s languages, they could understand each other perfectly. The humans always just assumed that they were violent and dangerous and worked under that assumption. They never stopped to actually listen, or even talk to these aliens directly. They treated them exactly like a lab rat, acting as though they knew better, and the pain inflicted was for the greater good. The most astonishing and enlightening part of the film was when a human started to mutate into one of the Prawns, the MNU took him into custody and experimented relentlessly on him. He begged and pleaded in a language they understood and was happy to co-operate if they would just listen. However, no one even stopped to hear him out. The film slapped across my face the reality that many of us walk around the place believing so strongly in our opinion and beliefs, we never even stop to listen to others, even when they are simply trying to help us.

The characters written in this movie were all layered and multi-dimensional – both human and Prawn. The final point that this movie left me with was – power corrupts, no matter in whose hands, power over another life is corrupted and will corrupt. The film also has great action scenes with brilliant special effects. Please make sure to check it out if you haven’t already and share your thoughts in the comments

Signing off

Pigment Editor