I just came back from watching District 9, a Sath Efriken sci-fi film about alien refugees stuck in Johannesburg. This film has elements of nearly every sci-fi film of decades past from Terminator to Road Warrior to the Fly. Allegories can be gleaned of every little social issue from immigration to internment to abortion to mercenaries to werld gummint. The subtext is rich for an Earth-based sci-fi action movie. There is much to pick at.
The protagonist is a nebbish and bureaucrat named Wilkus Van De Merve. His privilege and complicity in oppression and is clear to see when he jokes about alien embryos bursting in flames and when he tries to convince his victims and himself that he wants to help the aliens. The seemingly redemptive latter acts of the film refuse to let him off the hook like other movies would.
While this may seem like a video-game movie given its origins(mentioned below), this is a adult movie. Every other word is a heavily accented “fuck”, and the alien weapons make juice out of everything organic.
The story behind the production was that Peter Jackson’s bid for a live-action Halo movie fell through, and District 9 was created instead of the Halo movie. the director Neil Blomkamp has made a number of short films displaying his production skills and interest in sci-fi. The relatively sparse budget of $30 million is spent alarmingly well as this movie outdoes other, more expensive summer action movies such as G.I. Joe and Transformers 2.
South African military technology fascinates me. All the mine-resistant angles and caged glass give a futuristic look to ground vehicles that have been in service for decades. This futuristic look of the Casspir, Ratel, and other vehicles matches the sci-fi mood very well.
While the film seems to take a progressive stance, this isn’t a perfect representation of subalterns. Immigrant African groups, Nigerians being the only ones named, get a bad rap as superstitious, heavily-armed gangsters. While the immigration theme permeates the film, it seems South Africa has learned little from the anti-immigrant riots of last year, as there is still room in the movie to demonize black immigrants to South Africa.
I expect to be faking an Afrikaner accent for weeks to come.