(CORRECTION: The real District 6 was in Cape Town, not Johannesburg)
Film Review: District 9
Film
Review: District 9
By Asad Ali
(Published in Rebel Youth issue #9, February 2010)
What if the “others” really weren’t human? Racism and discrimination play on the idea that the oppressed don’t deserve the same rights we do, because they’re different and less than human. But what if a group of extra-terrestrials lived among us? Would they be forced into ghettoes, and would we make up convenient explanations for why we have to keep them under our control? South African (and Vancouverite) sci-fi director Neill Blomkamp, and his Vancouverite co-writer Terri Thatchell, explore exactly this idea in District 9, a follow-up to his previous short “Alive in Joburg”. Blomkamp intended to simply make a sci-fi movie based in Johannesburg, but inevitably racism and apartheid figure large, as well as Blomkamp’s own anti-African prejudices.
The aliens in District 9 are stranded on Earth until they can get their mothership repaired, but meanwhile they are herded into ghettoes in Johannesburg (where they first appeared). Their social conditions turn the ghettoes into dens of crime and vice, although this link isn’t explicitly made. The real life District 9 in Johannesburg (“District 6”) was a multi-cultural neighborhood that was an oasis within apartheid, and was razed to the ground under the cover of an urban development project. North American cities also have had such neighborhoods that were a stronghold for disadvantaged communities until they became targeted for “urban renewal”, such as Africville of Halifax or the Hill District of Pittsburgh. The multi-cultural strengths of the real District 6 do not make it into District 9.
The racism of humans towards the aliens (who are all Canadian actors), and the dodging and self-justifying used to conveniently cover it up (“don’t they look like prawns?”) are great to see through the artistic device of having space aliens as the protagonists. The exposition of racism is subtle though, as you would have to be aware of racism in the real world to, for example, recognize how the talking heads in the movie fit with the role of talking heads on our evening news whose perverse ideas in the end only serve to justify robbery and murder. Some of the "person on the street" interviews at the beginning are from real interviews with South Africans about Zimbabwean immigrants. It’s easy to be in denial of racism in real life, but hopefully it’s easier to recognize denial in action in this movie.
Starting off as a mockumentary covering an anti-hero Afrikaaner who Blomkamp specifically wrote as anti-macho, to show the complicity of those who collaborate and cooperate with oppression from behind a desk, the film ends up taking us behind the scenes of what is a corporate profit-grab dressed up as a law-and-order exercise to “mop up” the aliens’ ghetto. In real life we often don’t get to see, until decades after the fact, that what was presented as a fight for peace and democracy (through war and fascism) is really the planned exploitation and promotion of racism and discrimination by the wealthy to get richer at everyone else’s expense. To stop the racist round-ups of the aliens’ ghetto and to sabotage the plans of the monopoly capitalists behind it, the anti-hero has to change sides in more than one way.
It’s possible the anti-racism in the movie is entirely unintended, and in interviews Blomkamp insists District 9 is primarily sci-fi. It’s easy to believe him, because there is also unintended racism in the movie towards Nigerians in particular and Africans in general. An underworld character from the alien’s ghetto is straight out of the nightmare we are fed about Africans daily on the news and in commercialized culture, complete with cannibalism, irrational rituals, sleaze, and just pure menace. When Blomkamp was asked by Brad Balfour in aHuffington Post interview about what the Nigerians were supposed to represent in the movie, he replied that “it’s just the way it is” that Nigerians are “a massive part” of crime in today’s Johannesburg! The anti-racism of District 9 might have been too subtle even for its director.
A technical tip to those who will download the movie: the aliens talk in their own language which is dubbed, but not necessarily in the same language as the rest of the movie. The aliens don't talk until 13:13, so check your downloads to make sure all the languages are the ones you’re looking for. It's also worth downloading the prequel "Alive in Joburg" for more real "person on the street" interviews!
By Asad Ali
(Published in Rebel Youth issue #9, February 2010)
What if the “others” really weren’t human? Racism and discrimination play on the idea that the oppressed don’t deserve the same rights we do, because they’re different and less than human. But what if a group of extra-terrestrials lived among us? Would they be forced into ghettoes, and would we make up convenient explanations for why we have to keep them under our control? South African (and Vancouverite) sci-fi director Neill Blomkamp, and his Vancouverite co-writer Terri Thatchell, explore exactly this idea in District 9, a follow-up to his previous short “Alive in Joburg”. Blomkamp intended to simply make a sci-fi movie based in Johannesburg, but inevitably racism and apartheid figure large, as well as Blomkamp’s own anti-African prejudices.
The aliens in District 9 are stranded on Earth until they can get their mothership repaired, but meanwhile they are herded into ghettoes in Johannesburg (where they first appeared). Their social conditions turn the ghettoes into dens of crime and vice, although this link isn’t explicitly made. The real life District 9 in Johannesburg (“District 6”) was a multi-cultural neighborhood that was an oasis within apartheid, and was razed to the ground under the cover of an urban development project. North American cities also have had such neighborhoods that were a stronghold for disadvantaged communities until they became targeted for “urban renewal”, such as Africville of Halifax or the Hill District of Pittsburgh. The multi-cultural strengths of the real District 6 do not make it into District 9.
The racism of humans towards the aliens (who are all Canadian actors), and the dodging and self-justifying used to conveniently cover it up (“don’t they look like prawns?”) are great to see through the artistic device of having space aliens as the protagonists. The exposition of racism is subtle though, as you would have to be aware of racism in the real world to, for example, recognize how the talking heads in the movie fit with the role of talking heads on our evening news whose perverse ideas in the end only serve to justify robbery and murder. Some of the "person on the street" interviews at the beginning are from real interviews with South Africans about Zimbabwean immigrants. It’s easy to be in denial of racism in real life, but hopefully it’s easier to recognize denial in action in this movie.
Starting off as a mockumentary covering an anti-hero Afrikaaner who Blomkamp specifically wrote as anti-macho, to show the complicity of those who collaborate and cooperate with oppression from behind a desk, the film ends up taking us behind the scenes of what is a corporate profit-grab dressed up as a law-and-order exercise to “mop up” the aliens’ ghetto. In real life we often don’t get to see, until decades after the fact, that what was presented as a fight for peace and democracy (through war and fascism) is really the planned exploitation and promotion of racism and discrimination by the wealthy to get richer at everyone else’s expense. To stop the racist round-ups of the aliens’ ghetto and to sabotage the plans of the monopoly capitalists behind it, the anti-hero has to change sides in more than one way.
It’s possible the anti-racism in the movie is entirely unintended, and in interviews Blomkamp insists District 9 is primarily sci-fi. It’s easy to believe him, because there is also unintended racism in the movie towards Nigerians in particular and Africans in general. An underworld character from the alien’s ghetto is straight out of the nightmare we are fed about Africans daily on the news and in commercialized culture, complete with cannibalism, irrational rituals, sleaze, and just pure menace. When Blomkamp was asked by Brad Balfour in aHuffington Post interview about what the Nigerians were supposed to represent in the movie, he replied that “it’s just the way it is” that Nigerians are “a massive part” of crime in today’s Johannesburg! The anti-racism of District 9 might have been too subtle even for its director.
A technical tip to those who will download the movie: the aliens talk in their own language which is dubbed, but not necessarily in the same language as the rest of the movie. The aliens don't talk until 13:13, so check your downloads to make sure all the languages are the ones you’re looking for. It's also worth downloading the prequel "Alive in Joburg" for more real "person on the street" interviews!
