In 1990, a massive star ship bearing a bedraggled alien population, nicknamed “the Prawns,” appeared over South Africa. Twenty years later, the refugee camp where the aliens were located has deteriorated into a militarized ghetto called District 9. In 2010, “the Prawns” are being forcibly moved from District 9. And in charge of the operation is a contractor called Wikus who finds himself exposed to a strange alien chemical and must rely on the help of his only two new “Prawn” friends.
Review
“DISTRICT 9” is a very smart sci-fi, but that’s just the beginning; it’s also a scathing social satire hidden inside a terrific action thriller teeming with gross aliens and regrettable inter-species conflict.
Humor comes in the form of irony. But then Blomkamp has seeded irony and analogies throughout “District 9” as he makes his way through a myriad of modern anxieties including the racial divide, class differences, big business and broadcast news.
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
THE metaphorical resonances of “District 9” are rich and thought provoking. And the filmmakers don’t draw them out with a heavy, didactic hand. Instead, they embed their ideas in an ingenious, propulsive and suspenseful genre entertainment, one that respects your intelligence.
At its core the film tells the story of how a member of the socially dominant group becomes aware of the injustice that keeps him in his place and the others, his designated inferiors, in theirs. The cost he pays for this knowledge is severe, as it must be, given the dreadful contours of the system. But if the film’s view of the world is bleak, it is not quite nihilistic. It suggests that sometimes the only way to become fully human is to be completely alienated.
