District 9 to me is the little movie that possibly could. Not a lot of foreign movies get decent screens in the US (before you sent hate mail, yes there are exceptions but let’s agree that they are few and far between), but this South African film directed by Neill Blomkamp is getting the full release treatment. Having Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) as your producer and backer, probably helped matters quite a bit.
Without wanting to give too much away, the film is about a ship full of aliens (nicknamed “prawns”) who arrive to Earth in the early 80’s and are placed by the humans into a “colony” of sorts named District 9 located in Johannesburg. In 2010, when Multinational United (MNU) decides to relocate the “colony” to a new location outside the city, they send their man, Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a lowly bureaucrat to lead the team who will be handing out the eviction slips. Things go very wrong from then on.
The film is adapted from a 2005 short film called Alive in Joburg, which deals with undertones of xenophobia and social segregation. It is inspired by events that occured during the South African apartheid in the city of Cape Town, which had a area called District six.
The movie which cost a paltry (all things considered…) $30 million to make, looks and feels like what sci-fi should be. The effects are superb and well done. The movie is gruesome at times, but still with just enough heart for you to feel for the aliens. Well written, well acted and well directed. Good film all in all.
Side Note: On the way out of the theater, one lady to another said: “The movie was okay but will not work here. They should have set it here so people can relate to it better.” Clearly she missed the point.
Posted Friday, August 14, 2009