District 9(6)
District 9(6)
District 9 (Neil Blomkamp, 2009) was a successful film, beginning with the budget of 33 million and made about 210.8 million in the box office. It won and was nominated for awards such as best screenplay, best director; it won Best international film in the Academy of science fiction, fantasy and horror films and was the winner of cultural crossover award within the Alliance of women film journalists. After watching the film about 12 years later, I am confused to understand how this film made so much and why it was shown as an execution of explaining the dynamics of apartheid.
The film is about an alien ship, whose ship arrives on Earth and like governments do, go on the ship, bundle up the aliens and become managed in slums in a concentration camp living area called “district 9”. This part of the film is actually based on real events and a real district called “district 6” — during apartheid in South Africa. I’m guessing this film was supposed to be a commentary on that. What I feel Blomkamp tried to convey were themes like “othering”, “segregation” and imagery for “militarization”. In some ways, he did a great job mimicking greed and detachment when it comes to helping those who are different from us, but the story was very much told from a white narrative.
The main character in the story who worked for the Multi-National United, who openly lacked empathy towards these aliens in the beginning, accidentally inhales an alien specimen that then turns him into one of these creatures. Immediately after, his life becomes disposable once his company figures out they can use him for their benefit. Fortunately, he escapes, becomes a fugitive and realizes the only place he can successfully hide is in District 9.
There are many faults in this movie to which I have criticisms about. The movie houses the “white savior” trope, it sheds Nigerians in a menacing light and fuels stereotypes about them and sympathy towards the end of the film is accommodated towards the company’s field agent, who in the beginning had no care about the aliens, in which he then turns into. Although, I do agree that our governments treat those different as expendable, I think he could’ve told the narrative in a different way.
Learning about District 6, the film District 9 felt like a watered down version of how truly devastating Apartheid was and although the Aliens were an allegory for the Black and brown people who had to deal with Apartheid, they are only fictional. Therefore, our empathy for them as an audience is limited; compared to a human who inadvertently mutates into one and loses everything he’s ever known. Yes, the movie is supposed to take a satiric approach to this very serious conversation but it was very much told from a white perspective. Although the ones who suffered the most were Black and Brown people during apartheid.
