district 9 film analysis essay

District 9: A Post-Colonial Analysis

Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 narrates the story of an alien invasion where humans treat the aliens as refugees. The story begins by providing historical background on the sudden appearance of a spaceship hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa. At first, the aliens receive assistance from citizens, yet tension gradually rises: people begin to feel that the aliens have prolonged their stay. Over time, people segregate the aliens, treating them as refugees.

The plot focuses on Wikus van der Werwe , a head operative of the M.N.U. in charge of relocating the aliens from District 9 to District 10. As Wikus evicts the aliens, he encounters Christopher Johnson, an alien who shows more knowledge compared to the rest of the aliens since he is aware of how to distinguish alien technology from human technology. In addition, he’s aware that alien technology provides the black liquid needed to fuel the spaceship and leave Earth. Furthermore, his home reveals various computer hardware, implying that Christopher Johnson is technology-oriented, as opposed to the rest of the aliens that are worker-oriented. During the relocation , Wikus is exposed to an alien chemical, gradually transforming him into an alien. Although Wikus confiscates the black liquid, his transformation accelerates, horrifying him and other people. Because his transformation allows him to operate alien technology such as weapons, he’s hunted by the M.N.U. Persecuted and alienated, Wikus finds shelter with Christopher Johnson and his son. Together Wikus and Christopher Johnson recover the black liquid, which will allow Christopher Johnson to return home and provide Wikus with a cure to return to his former state.

Wikus van der Werwe works for the government “ engag [ing] with the prawn on behalf of M.N.U. and on behalf of humans.” In order to appease the demands of the Johannesburg citizens, the Multi-National United assigns Wikus and his team to evict the aliens from their residences and re-assign them to District 10, moving them away from the populated city and relocating them to an isolated area. In the beginning, audiences observe how Wikus and his team treat the aliens. While the military prefers to shoot and kill any aliens unwilling to concede, Wikus prefers to engage with the aliens in a non-aggressive manner . However, when Wikus discovers a shack filled with eggs, he performs an abortion. Although Wikus follows direct protocol, he fails to recognize that he’s exterminating a species. Wikus displays no remorse towards his actions, suggesting that he’s adapted to the government’s policies. These two separate acts reveal the hypocritical nature of the government’s involvement. Although the M.N.U. claims to have the aliens’ best interest at hand, their motivation is purely self-interested.

Settler Colonialism

The alien refugees are an example of a settler colony. Patrick Wolfe argues that “settler colonialism destroys to replace” (388). Wolfe argues that settler colonialism and genocide does not target particular races but is “made in the targeting” (388). Wolfe’s statement suggests that there is a process to replacement. In the case of District 9 , humans are interested in the weapons, while the aliens are engrossed with the cat food. While settler colonialism encourages exchanging resources and language, this positive attitude gradually evolves to fear and hatred. Furthermore, it is not surprising that the settled colony faces oppression. One commentator in the film argues, “The legality that M.N.U. is using to evict the aliens is simply a whitewash.” While the M.N.U. claims the removal of the aliens is due to humanitarian reasons, the central focus, as the film points out, is weapons. Although the arrival of the aliens disrupts the daily lives of citizens, this also provides the M.N.U. with rich resources. To the dismay of many citizens, the aliens inevitably live in Johannesburg, and the government reacts by removing the aliens into a remote piece of land. This government action reflects settler colonialism. In this case, the aliens have settled in District 9, while the M.N.U. assume authorial power. The objective of settler colonialism relies on acquiring indigenous territory and resources, resulting in exterminating the natives. According to Lorenzo Veracini , he argues that the aliens in District 9, along with “indigenous peoples in other settler colonial settings,” represent “obstacles,” therefore, people have no use for them except for the land they inhabit (361). Through colonialism, the indigenous expose and share the culture with the colonists. With colonialism, this brings interbreeding between different racial groups through marriage or sexual relations known as miscegenation.

Miscegenation

According to Wolfe, he argues that settler colonialism “encourage[s] miscegenation” (388). District 9 refers to miscegenation twice in the film: once when the film details a prostitution ring between humans and the aliens, and a second time when Wikus begins to transform into an alien and reports of inter-species relations claim to be the cause of his transformation. These false reports not only alienate Wikus , but also show the concerns of miscegenation. When news spread that intersexual relations with an alien is the cause of Wikus ‘ transformation, people show alarm and disgust, suggesting that race-mixing is not acceptable. Since people oppose the interbreeding between alien and human, this reveals hatred toward the other race. As Wikus progressively transforms into an alien, he becomes someone who rejects his own race. According to F. James Davis, people who are “racially mixed” are “socially marginal ,” meaning they are not accepted from either parent group, leaving them susceptible for discrimination (25). The transformation horrifies Wikus . After black bile drips from his nose and losing several of his fingernails and teeth, Wikus still denies his change. As his arm changes into an alien claw, Wikus tries to cut off his own hand, leading him to cry out in pain. Since Wikus feels pain when he cuts off a finger, this shows, to Wikus ‘ horror, that the alien arm is a part of him. His transformation represents the fear of and realization of the “one-drop rule.” According to Davis, a drop of “black blood” defines a person as black (5). Because Wikus denies his race, he recognizes that aliens are inferior to humans. He knows that as a human being he retains certain rights and privileges; additionally, he’s fully aware that aliens are not accepted by society. If society allows miscegenation, this brings peace and harmony among race relations. However, since society prohibits miscegenation, there exists no balance between humans and aliens.

Due to the sudden exposure of alien biotechnology, Wikus experiences an unfamiliar culture, causing him to interact with the aliens, specifically Christopher Johnson and his son. This exposure allows Wikus to identify with the aliens, permitting Wikus to grow sympathetic towards the aliens. Because of his gradual transformation into an alien, Wikus is experimented on by scientists from M.N.U. experiment on Wikus to test various alien weapons. After shooting various animal carcasses, the scientists order Wikus to shoot an alien. Although he refuses to shoot, Wikus is ultimately forced to kill the alien. During his stay with the scientists, Wikus becomes aware of the unfair violence and abuse towards the aliens. In the case of Christopher Johnson, he and Wikus unite and fight together for separate reasons: Christopher Johnson wants to go home and Wikus wants a cure that only Christopher Johnson can provide . As Wikus continues to transform, his perception on the aliens changes. Towards the end of the film, Wikus leaves Christopher Johnson to face a brutal death, yet he saves him, an act which displays sympathy and acceptance of not only the alien who promises to cure him, but also acceptance of his own race.

Once Wikus separates himself from society, this leads the audience to “ identif [y] with the protagonist,” building “tension and identification…used to deliver a powerful critique of contemporary developments” (359). Apart from miscegenation, the film critiques issues of xenophobia and “privatized violence” (359). The commentary provided at the start of the film reveals xenophobic attitudes towards the aliens.

The aliens are evicted from the townships, living away from human beings. Footage reveals that there are hate crimes against the aliens (i.e. shooting riots and burning down the aliens’ homes). The film also depicts citizens segregating the humans from the aliens. By relocating the aliens from District 9 to District 10, people hope the violence will cease ; however, the relocation allows people to avoid confronting and resolving the racial problems.

The film’s antagonist, Koobus Venter, serves in the military and displays a ruthless and callous attitude towards the aliens. Since Koobus displays xenophobic behavior, this suggests that xenophobia is a common attitude among Johannesburg. Although xenophobia pertains to the irrational fear or hatred towards foreigners, xenophobia does derive from a cause. Xenophobia can arise as a result of poor education or alienation of those that are different. Another cause of xenophobia is propaganda. At the beginning of the film, audiences see signs displaying segregation, visually dividing the humans from the aliens. The use of racial propaganda manipulates the information and influences people to believe one side of the argument, thereby creating stereotypes. The aliens, for example , receive the derogatory name “prawn” to indicate their appearance and low rank. Because the film depicts xenophobia, this provides a critique on a social issue, suggesting an act to reform.

As the film tackles themes and social issues such as xenophobia, miscegenation, and privatized violence, the film reveals humanity’s cruel nature. District 9 is not just a science fiction film, but a film depicting issues of race that still remain relevant to this day.

Davis, F. James. Who is Black? One Nation’s Definition. 10th ed. Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press, 2001. Print.

Veracini , Lorenzo. “ District 9 and Avatar : Science Fiction and Settler Colonialism.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 32.4 (2011): 355-367. Academic Search Complete . Web.

Wolfe, Patrick. “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native.” Journal of Genocide Research 8.4 (2006):387-409. Academic Search Complete . Web.

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29 Comments

Best sci-fi movie since The Empire Strikes Back

I loved this movie then (I also saw it in a theater when it first came out) and love it still.

Same here. When I first saw the movie in theaters, I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m glad I saw it.

On second viewing of the intro, those people in charge of government and bureaucracy must be out of their minds. Who thought up and went with that idea of concentrating 1 million new aliens residing in a district of a city with 5 million people.

If anything, the immediate concern was to create separate refugee camps away from the ship and then set up dedicated labs directly under to inspect it. Not to mention it took 28 years to finally decide to evict them?

Nevertheless, we wouldn’t have an amazing movie that has themes about real life aliens, poverty, slums etc if the government was actually smarter then.

It is sad to watch a movie that depicts real-life social issues, yet I think it’s good to portray and discuss those issues because this states the problem, allowing people to become aware and call for action.

I thought about that flaw in the government procedure, too. But, on the other hand, they’re not telling us about the huge international interests, pressures and negotiations involved in the decision about how to proceed with the aliens, in the first place (and the mothership in the second which could be a much more complex issue), nor about the details of the decision-making process about them. We know that there are parts of society which defend them and these could have taken a no-interference stance, leading to legal implications in the relocation of these beings.

I think the movie, among other things, in its use of a fictitious scenario as a depiction of apartheid, tries exactly to illustrate this: how a government, by being incompetent and leaving matters into the wrong hands, can turn the lives of many people into a living hell.

well if you think about it, the prawns had the technology to fly away the whole time. yet they didn’t. it took them 20 years to scavenge their own tech, something that was already aboard their ship, before they could fly away again. huge plot hole that well paid writers could have covered up.

When I read your article the first time, you made me watch the movie again.

I love your article. It is well informed and insightful. I look forward to reading more from you.

Thank you! I appreciate your positive feedback!

This is a very thorough review. You touched on many points that I did not realize that were in the movie. For example the miscegenation, it made me look at the movie through a different angle instead of watching it as just a sci-fi. Great article!!

Thank you! I took an anthropology class focusing on the biological rather than the cultural aspects. So when I re-watch District 9, a lot of the lecture resonated within the film. Thanks again!

The film is a fantastic examination of humanity, and inventively does this through humanising the prawns rather than us.

I was quite disappointed with ‘Elysium’ because it was being touted as the new film by visionary director of ‘District 9’ but turned out to rip off practically every Sci-Fi film I’d ever seen, right down the ending being the exact ending to ‘Armageddon’. I still enjoyed it but I expected more from a “visionary director”. This was all before I’d seen ‘District 9’ at all. After seeing it, I’m even more disappointed with ‘Elysium’ and what it could have been.

And while I agree Copley was badass in ‘Elysium’, I think he fit the character of Wikus a lot better.

This is one of the best sci-fi movies ever. Elysium is a mediocre movie with atrocious acting from Jodie Foster (who I generally love), its only real strong point is Copley’s performance.

It was pretty much only made to serve as political propaganda.

It was a very impressive debut, by Copley but especially by Blomkamp, which is made even more impressive when you see the budget. ‘Elysium’ turned out to be a much better follow up for Copley than it was for Blomkamp but I certainly look forward to seeing more of them both in the future.

Very intriguing analyses. Pretty inventive film indeed.

This is what science fiction should be – using plausible science to illuminate aspects of the human condition. You make a great case for why District 9 is so good at this. It’s even better that its messages are wrapped up in breathless action sequences and an innovative mockumentary style!

I never viewed the film with the idea of colonialism in mind, with the clear themes of race and segregation always being the most dominant. Definitely something very interesting to consider and warrants a reviewing of the film, as if a reason was ever necessary.

This article and the film itself definitely gives us a lot of food for thought about these issues. A very interesting read!

I also thought this was a very well made movied. Not at all like usual Alien fare. As an audience you really identify with the aliens instead of seeing them as monsters. Very thought provoking article.

Surprisingly well made movie that came out of no where. The director does tackle similar stuff in his other movie, Elysium. I like him. He got it all, action, Sci-fi and though provoking story lines.

I like that this film “humanizes” the aliens, considering that in most sci-fi flicks, aliens are portrayed as monsters that humans must defeat or run away from. It is obvious in the film that the aliens are being terribly mistreated, which makes viewers ask: If it isn’t ok to treat aliens in such a way, why is it acceptable that so many humans have been treated this way, and are continued to be treated this way?

You know, I wonder how much of the mistreatment in general, in real life, actually stems from the animalistic portrayal of foreign entities to begin with. Couldn’t this also work as propoganda in a similar way as the author mentioned in her article?

Excelente Amanda! Los asuntos de derechos humanos, son asuntos de primera importancia que sólo con educación pueden transformar ese tipo de cultura.

Really great perspective to take on this movie. I didn’t think about it at the time but, looking back, this is a very post-colonial narrative. Great points!

I think your analysis is spot on! You bring up a good point with regard to Wikus marginalization because of his becoming an alien, and this is very much reflected in today’s society. Keep up the good work!

Great film!

Thank you for this intuitive analysis. While the metaphorical analysis of South African apartheid is definitely impactful, I find the film marred by its orientalist presentation of its actual minorities; the Nigerians. They’re presented as cannibalistic savages who engage in black magic and violent crimes which sort of diminishes the validity of the film’s commentary on oppression and segregation in my opinion.

These all sound like familiar themes to 2014.

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Movies, tv & music • independent film criticism • soundtrack guides • forming the future • est. 2014, ‘district 9’: xenophobic themes still resonate a decade later.

In 1966, South Africa declared District Six, an inner-city area in Cape Town, a “whites-ones area,” and the apartheid regime forcibly removed 60,000 people to Cape Flats, an area 16 miles away. Neil Blomkamp, born in South Africa in 1979, saw firsthand the effects of apartheid on his country, before it was abolished in the early 90s, and it stuck with him. So when plans to develop a film based on the HALO video game franchise fizzled, he chose to make a film inspired by his homeland’s dastardly deeds. That film, released 10 years ago, was District 9. It was a bold thematic choice for a major theatrical release, but it paid off. Filmed on a budget of $30 million, District 9 was a financial triumph, taking in $210 million at the box office and garnering a slew of positive reviews. But does it hold up a decade later or is it just another 2000s sci-fi flick? One thing’s for certain: its themes of xenophobia and social segregation certainly still resonate.

District 9 takes place in an alternate history, one in which a ship full of sickly, malnourished aliens appears over Johannesburg, South Africa in 1982. The South African government decides to hold the aliens in an internment camp, the titular District 9. Decades later, the government decides to relocate the aliens to a new camp, directly paralleling the true-to-life incident of District Six, farming out the job to the weapons manufacturer Multinational United. MNU office worker Wikus van de Merwe (played by the charming Sharlto Copley) is tasked with leading the relocation, a duty which he carries out with little-to-no thought for the lives he’s disrupting, making snide jokes along the way, talking down to the “prawns” as they’re called. But during the relocation, he is exposed to alien technology, which alters his DNA and starts to turn him into one of the very aliens he is trying to uproot.

You know that saying that you can’t understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes? District 9 takes that concept and makes it the central focus of the film. By transforming into an alien, claw-hands and all, and living amongst them in the slums, Wikus begins to empathize with them, to understand their plight. Ironically, the more alien he becomes, the more humane Wikus becomes.

From Star Trek to The Twilight Zone , science fiction has long been a genre through which to comment/reflect upon societal issues indirectly, without getting heavy-handed. It’s easier to tackle intense issues (and sneak big ideas past censors) when they’re hidden behind stories of aliens, monsters, time travel , etc. Blomkamp was using District 9 to clearly parallel South African apartheid, but the themes present in the film still resonate today. Consider the situation at the U.S./Mexico border, where families are being separated and people are being held in cages. The real-life issues are complex and obviously can’t be directly compared to a movie about insectoid aliens, but the lessons of District 9 are still applicable. Immigrants worldwide are looked upon as subhumans, as the aliens are in the film. Taking a cue from Wikus, rather than treat people as “others,” perhaps it’d be a good idea to consider how those “others” live, to seek understanding with one’s fellow man. Wikus, a dyed-in-the-wool bureaucrat from a privileged background, had never considered the feelings of the aliens, and once he does, he adopts a new mindset.

Some have argued that District 9 is a white savior narrative, as a white man helps to rescue what are essentially analogues for poor Africans. This might be, but Wikus isn’t alone , as he is saved by the aliens at the end. More importantly, he isn’t just made to be a hero. He’s shown to be a sort of brother/fellow “man” with the aliens, and he doesn’t get everything he wants . He fights off MNU mercenaries so his alien comrade Christopher can escape. He goes from a full-on unfeeling, just-doing-my-job bureaucrat to a man willing to sacrifice all for someone he once saw as an other.

Blomkamp has since directed two feature-length films, Elysium (2013) and Chappie (2015), both of which attempt to tackle heavier issues, but neither are as well-executed as District 9 . The story is fairly simple, but the film benefits from solid acting, mostly from van de Merwe, and an engaging found-footage style. Van de Merwe starts off as a boorish desk jockey, coming off almost like a clueless Michael Scott-type character, but he becomes a believable hero by the end . The found footage style can seem somewhat gimmicky, but it gives the film a unique, feet-on-the-ground style that really puts you in the rundown, nasty slums of District 9. The third act suffers in that it becomes somewhat of a cliche action flick, but it’s well-executed enough. Oh, and if you like body horror, there’s some of that for you as well.

District 9 might not be a classic like Alien or The Terminator (not many films are), but it’s still an effective sci-fi film with depth and style. Some of the CGI might not hold up, but the meat of the matter — how a man learns to overcome his xenophobia and empathize with the segregated “enemy” — has never been more timely.

John Brhel ( @johnbrhel ) is an author and pop culture writer from upstate New York. He is the co-author of several books of horror/paranormal fiction, including Corpse Cold: New American Folklore and Resurrection High, and the co-founder of independent book publisher Cemetery Gates Media. He enjoys burritos and has seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom way too many times

Categories: 2000s , 2019 Film Essays , Action , Featured , Film Essays , Science Fiction , Thriller

Tagged as: Action , District 9 , John Brhel , Neill Blomkamp , Science Fiction , Thriller

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District 9: Film Studies Essay

District 9 (Jackson) uses a speculative fiction plot line to address the long term reverberations of apartheid in South Africa. The themes of purity and contamination woven into the story of alien refugees are also addressed in other works by observers of South Africa’s problems, for example, Too Late the Phalarope (Paton). The movie succeeds magnificently at satirizing and spinning out the implications of the rabid xenophobia characteristic of that nation’s European colonists. As science fiction, however, it neglects background issues that someone primarily interested in creating an SF film would perhaps have detailed. The opening section’s documentary style supports the story effectively early on.

The historical concept that the film covers is a world in which apartheid is nominally dismantled. Blacks and whites work together in a way that would likely have been impossible under apartheid. However, the habits of mind that created apartheid still persist. In the case of South Africa, this could be summarized as an idiosyncratic interpretation of the Old Testament.

This led Dutch colonists to believe, for example, that there exists a chosen, privileged people, and all others are not only inferior to the chosen group, but dangerously impure as well. Thus, when South Authorities discover the mass of malnourished aliens on the marooned ship, their response mirrors the bad old days. They segregate, “militarize”, ignore basics as housing, jobs and education, and then are punitively appalled when the aliens offend their expectations. Almost everyone in the film, including South African blacks, and the resident Nigerian criminals, 1 falls into similar xenophobia and exploitation.

This allegory of apartheid explores the pattern that afflicted South Africa for decades, with disturbing effectiveness. The combination of self-satisfied superiority, officiousness, concern for world opinion, and prompt resort to violence all are familiar and plausible from years of news stories about apartheid. Even recent reportage about accused athlete Oscar Pistorius references a persistent culture of guns in South Africa (Perry).

The exploitation of the historic Afrikaner obsession with miscegenation, so poignantly portrayed in Too Late the Phalarope , makes Wikus’ situation even more distressing. The director has captured the worst, most hypocritical aspects of racism and an obsession with otherness. The fact that this ‘other’ resembles a cockroach forces all movie-goers, of whatever race, to adopt a new point of view. The possibility that we as a species might mess up an encounter with an alien intelligence, simply because racism blinds us, is properly scary.

Largely shot in a documentary style, with a jerky hand-held camera feel, the movie hauls the viewer through a bleak landscape, both physically and emotionally. The trash dump setting emphasizes segregation’s and over-crowding’s impact on both residents and environment. We are introduced along the way to Wikus’ casual racism, the borrowed xenophobia of other blacks who are interviewed, the superstitious greed of the Nigerian criminals, the knee-jerk violence of corporate mercenaries, and the venal acquisitiveness of big corporations determined to literally harvest Wikus.

There are humorous touches, such as anti-non-human warning signs, and compelling indigenous music. The camera style changes somewhat over the course of the film. Once the protagonist abandons mainstream society, the conceit of a news cameraman trotting around after him loses plausibility. The end of the movie devolves into an action-thriller.

However, as a true science fiction film, District 9 suffers from a common weakness in the aliens’ backstory. This vagueness regarding the Prawn (they remain nameless) may symbolize racism’s obliviousness to the ‘other’, whether as an individual or in their own context.

As a commentary on the residual dangers of apartheid, this movie works brilliantly. It uses a not-unfamiliar science fiction device to highlight human evil, with an innovative, immediate style. The themes of apartheid’s ills have been addressed in literature before, but for many Western viewers, this movie may offer an important sense of what life was like under that regime in a way that no news story or testimony can accomplish.

Works Cited

District 9 . Dir. Peter Jackson. 2009. Film.

Paton, Alan. Too Late the Phalarope . London: Jonathan Cape, 1953. book.

Perry, Alex. “Pistorius And South Africa’s Culture Of Violence.” 2013. Time.

Vanguard. “ Govt bans showing of District 9 film in Nigeria .” 2009. Vanguard. Web.

1 The film was apparently banned by the Nigerian government (Vanguard).

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IvyPanda. (2024, February 27). District 9: Film Studies. https://ivypanda.com/essays/district-9-film-studies/

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1. IvyPanda . "District 9: Film Studies." February 27, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/district-9-film-studies/.

Bibliography

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District 9, Essay Example

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District 9 is a 2009 South African science fiction film that depicts the conflicts that arise when a group of extraterrestrials are stranded on Earth, specifically in Johannesburg, South Africa.  While the film is a work of fiction, it highlights some very important sociological concepts such as social stratification and racism, both of which have been major issues in South Africa’s history.

District 9 prominently highlights how social stratification influences how humans view and interact with the extraterrestrials.  “Social stratificiation is a system in which groups of people are divided into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige” (Henslin 166).  In the film, the best example of social stratification can be seen in the relationship between humans and extraterrestrials.  For example, the extraterrestrials are considered to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy.  In a way, the manner in which society distinguishes humans from extraterrestrials is a form of apartheid.  The extraterrestrials are not allowed to be part of society because of their species/race.  Additionally, because of the difference in species/race, these extraterrestrials are not allowed to be members of society, but rather are forced to live in designated government camps called districts.  Moreover, these districts are not maintained as other parts of the city are, but rather are slums.  The extraterrestrials are not given any opportunity to move up within the social hierarchy and are deliberately discriminated against.  In the film, the government is highly influential in the formation of this social hierarchy.  Through legal ordinances, the government has determined where extraterrestrials can live, where they are allowed to congregate around, and if they are allowed to take public transportation.  Because the government determines these parameters and others, this social stratification is institutionalized, much like apartheid was. Regarding property, the extraterrestrials are without property of any kind; they are forced to live in slums and not given the opportunity to own anything besides what they can manage to scavenge from what is thrown away by humans.  Lastly, the extraterrestrials are considered to be beneath humans in terms of prestige.  The humans consider themselves to be better than the extraterrestrials simply because they are human.

Another important issue prominent in District 9 is racism, or rather, speciesism.  Race can be defined as “a group of people with inherited physical characteristics that distinguish it from another group” (222).  In District 9 discrimination is based on species.  Either an individual is a human or they are an extraterrestrial. There are several ways in which this discrimination impacts the extraterrestrials.  As stated previously, the extraterrestrials are forced to live in districts that segregate them from human society.  Moreover, humans often refer to the extraterrestrials as “prawns,” which further reinforces the contention that humans discriminate against them because they are of a different species.  In District 9 , it can be argued that much of this racism/speciesism is based on stereotype driven fear.  Because no one has ever interacted with an actual extraterrestrial and the only interaction between human and extraterrestrial people have ever been exposed to is found in works of fiction, it is likely that the people of Johannesburg considered extraterrestrials to be a threat to them based on their assumptions of what aliens are like based on how they are portrayed on television and in films.

In District 9 , social stratification and racism/speciesism are highlighted through the relationship humans and extraterrestrials are forced to maintain. While District 9 may highlight how humans may react to an extraterrestrial “infestation,” it also serves to remind people of how apartheid and other forms of institutionalized racism have impacted the world.

Works Cited

Henslin, James M. Essentials of Sociology: A Down-To-Earth Approach. New York: Pearson, 2010. Print.

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25 Things We Learned from the ‘District 9’ Commentary

Four year ago, Neill Blomkamp directed the surprise hit District 9 , a speculative sci-fi film about the integration of aliens into human culture. Based in his home country of South Africa, District 9 was embraced by critics and audiences, earning three somewhat expected technical Academy Award nomination and a completely unexpected Best Picture nod.

However, before the film was released anywhere, Blomkamp recorded his commentary on the film, giving a unique insight into its production with no knowledge of its eventual success.

At the time of recording, Blomkamp had been present to show the film in public once, at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Com, and he was feeling pretty good about the movie based on the audience reaction. At least this time, the Comic-Con love translated into box office success and critical acclaim.

District 9 (2009)

Commentator: Neill Blomkamp (writer and director)

1. Sharlto Copley and Blomkamp were high school friends in Johannesburg, South Africa. Copley, who was getting out of high school while Blomkamp was just entering, was the closest connection Blomkamp had to the film industry in his country.

2. District 9 is an “extrapolated, feature-length version” of Blomkamp’s short film Alive in Joburg (2005). The film was set into production after Peter Jackson ’s Halo collapsed in pre-production. Producer Fran Walsh pushed for the adaptation because they were given the green light to develop anything they wanted in return for the loss of  Halo .

3. The aliens in the film, created by Image Engine, were shot with a level of disregard, often appearing in “dirty handheld” shots and in the background. Blomkamp did this to avoid putting them on a pedestal and drawing attention to them as visual effects.

4. Blomkamp wrote the story to show the xenophobic attitudes the South Africans in the slums of Alexandra and Soweto had against the Zimbabweans who had came to the country for a better life. Within a week of principle photography, there was an incident of mass murder in which South Africans slaughtered Zimbabwean refugees, making the film more political in the country than Blomkamp originally intended. He officially apologizes in the commentary for unintentionally offending anyone in South Africa.

5. The MNU transports are Casspirs, which were developed for the South African military in the 1970s to fight a border war with Angola. They are designed as anti-mine vehicles, which can have their suspension and wheels blown off and later reattached, returning them to the field within a matter of hours.

6. The scenes in District 9 were filmed in Tshiawelo, an impoverished area built on an old landfill. Before filming, the government moved people out of the shacks where they lived and relocated them to government-subsidized brick housing. The production was given the leftover shacks, offering an authentic look of a South African slum.

7. The dead cow that Wikus (Copley) finds in the shack, incubating alien eggs, was a real dead cow that the production found. Dead animals are common on the streets of Soweto, and on-set art director Emelia Weavind was known as “the queen of death” because she would routinely find dead animals on the street to be used on the set.

8. Blomkamp made one of the antagonists a mercenary because he considers South Africa to be the birthplace of the modern private military. This resulted from the white apartheid government releasing thousands of high-caliber soldiers from duty when the black government took over. Some South African mercenary groups are famous, such as Executive Outcomes which helped overthrow rebels in Sierra Leone, but it is now illegal to run them based in the country.

9. Originally, Blomkamp did not want to use Christopher Johnson’s child (which the production referred to as “Little CJ”) because he feared it would be too cutesy and typical Hollywood. However, he kept the character in so the audience would sympathize more with Christopher Johnson’s desire to return home.

10. Jason Cope , who plays the journalist Grey Bradnam interviewed throughout the film, is an improv actor used to play all the aliens in the movie (except for the child alien, which was completely animated). Cope would act in the scenes with the other actors, and digital effects artist would paint him out while rotoscoping the aliens over him.

11. Blomkamp included Nigerians in the film because South Africans have such a negative view of them. Ironically, most of the actors playing Nigerians were South Africans, and none of them spoke Nigerian dialects. The actor playing the leader is Malawian and spoke improvised Nyanja. His underlings spoke a mixture of the South African languages of Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho, leading to utter gibberish in the scenes with Blomkamp describing everyone “equally sort of misrepresented.”

12. Originally, two days of evictions were filmed. The first day ends with Wikus’ party at home, and the second day ends with him in the hospital. The second day was cut for time, which is why Wikus’ condition with his mutated hand seems to have escalated so quickly.

13. Copley said that the hardest scene to shoot was when he was shoved into a body bag because he got claustrophobic. The second hardest scene to shoot was when he was pulling his teeth.

14. Blomkamp set the film in Johannesburg because he felt it is already a science fiction city. There’s widespread poverty among the masses, with pockets of wealth protected by high-tech gates with biometric fingerprinting devices. He considers modern Los Angeles (which he refers to as “diet Joburg” or “Joburg lite”) to be on its way towards this level of inequality that is only seen in Africa and India now.

15. The sheep’s head cut in half is a real South African dish known as a “smiley” (because by cutting the head in half, it appears to smile), which is sold as a real snack in the region.

16. The location where Wikus cuts part of his hand off with the axe is next to a sewage pipe dumping into a river, which was also filled with dead cow skulls. At night, cat-sized rats would come out to feed on the skulls.

17. The “real footage” of the documentary and news clips were shot with the prosumer Sony EX1 and EX3 cameras. The cinematic scenes were filmed with a Red One camera.

18. Blomkamp expresses concern with how western audiences will receive the concept of “muti,” which actually means “traditional medicine.” The most extreme versions of muti involves the ingesting of body parts, and ritual killings are known to happen in South Africa where body parts are cut off and used. Blomkamp figured that, while this isn’t voodoo, it was a similar enough concept that audiences would understand.

19. The MNU headquarters were filmed in the Carlton Center, which is the tallest building in Africa. An abandoned hotel next door was used for the entrance to the building, which was damaged during the explosion Wikus and Christopher Johnson use to infiltrate the headquarters.

20. Many people understood the parallels the Nazis and Japanese in World War II when Christopher Johnson discovers the dead alien that had been the subject of experiments. However, this is also a reference to experiments conducted by the apartheid government to develop pathogens and poisons that would only affect the black population.

21. When the helicopter lands and allows Wikus to escape the Nigerians, the wind from the blades was so powerful that it kicked up clouds of dirt, garbage, and feces all over the crew. This is one of the dangers of shooting in a location built on a polluted landfill.

22. Blomkamp suggests that the mother ship would have thousands of exo-suits on hand for warfare purposes as well as to be used to take measurements of hostile locations. He further suggests that a full one-quarter of the ship housed weapons of some sort.

23. Blomkamp was inspired to go into visual effects filmmaking when he saw Jurassic Park at the age of 13. He heard about how Spielberg resisted having to lock down all the shots of the dinosaurs, requiring a huge number of man-hours to track the effects in various shots. In District 9 , almost every shot of the aliens was done with a handheld camera with the visual effects tracked, showing the incredible advancement of the technology.

24. When Wikus throws a dead pig at one of the mercenaries, Blomkamp did not put that in for comedy. He put that in because dead animals are so common in the slums that it would make sense for Wikus to pick one up. Originally, Wikus throws two pigs, but neither was shot for humor’s sake, but rather for authenticity’s sake.

25. The shot of the crowd waving away the mother ship as it takes off was not planned. During a shoot of the downtown, the production happened upon a trade union demonstration, and the protestors were waving away the helicopter. Blomkamp grabbed the shot to use for the ending of the film.

Best in Commentary

• “[Tshiawelo] is just the most caustic, violent place you can possibly be. And then after a while, you shoot enough days there, it becomes normal.”
• “I’m not sure about the bra on this alien. I’m on the fence about that. I almost cut that. But it makes them kind of funny. I was trying to make them feel individual and unique, and I thought it would make sense. They’re kind of like magpies. They find stuff that interests them. They could decorate their whole shack with a bunch of plastic spoons because that particular alien was into it. And that guy maybe was into bras.”
• “So here’s one of those situations in a movie where you’re like, ‘Oh, those are the worst mercenaries I’ve ever seen in my life. They can’t hit a target for the life of them,’ you know. But this is how filmmaking goes sometimes when your protagonist gets stuck somewhere and he has to get out and you still have to make it interesting with bullets flying. You just have to have four really highly trained mercenaries have a hit ratio of zero, but that’s life.”
• “At his core, [Wikus] is kind of a dick.”

Final Thoughts

I was a huge fan of District 9 when it hit theaters. It represented such raw, independent, and authentic filmmaking, but with a big budget feel to it. It also managed to drive home some political points without being too preachy.

It’s easy to see the seeds of Blomkamp’s follow-up film Elysium , with his comments about Los Angeles being Joburg Lite, as well as his similar themes of oppression and injustice. However, with the restricted budget of District 9 , which Blomkamp notes several times throughout the commentary, he made a far superior film.

Hearing the gritty stories from the dirt and filth of the South African slums shows how this nugget of greatness grew from such humble beginnings. At the very least, what I heard in this commentary reinforces my belief that throwing money at a movie doesn’t necessarily make it better. Sometimes restrictions can make all the difference in artistic integrity.

Related Topics: Commentary Commentary , District 9 , Neill Blomkamp

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In 'District 9,' An Apartheid Allegory (With Aliens)

Jeannette Catsoulis

Metaphorical mothership: Three decades after extraterrestrials arrive on Earth, they remain quarantined in a violent, squalid Johannesburg ghetto. The refugee aliens aren't welcome, but they're also not allowed to leave. TriStar Pictures hide caption

Metaphorical mothership: Three decades after extraterrestrials arrive on Earth, they remain quarantined in a violent, squalid Johannesburg ghetto. The refugee aliens aren't welcome, but they're also not allowed to leave.

• Director: Neill Blomkamp
• Genre: Sci-Fi
• Running Time: 113 minutes

Rated R: Bloody violence and pervasive language With: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt

(Recommended)

Watch Clips

'Aliens Arrive'

Media no longer available

'Contraband'

Filmed almost entirely on a giant South African rubbish dump, District 9 spins human trash into extraterrestrial gold. Charging through a three-day story arc with end-of-the-world intensity, its characters dare us to quibble over their unpronounceable names and unintelligible accents.

But then as their frequently-subtitled exchanges prove, words aren't really the point: When it's human against alien, we rely on our eyes much more than our ears.

Made for around $30 million — a steal at today's prices — this frenetic debut by Neill Blomkamp (a protege of Peter Jackson, who produced the film) grabs you by the eyeballs from the very first frame. Jackson's own cinematic technique may have congealed into a bloated caricature of itself, but District 9 proves he still recognizes talent.

As we learn from a brilliantly concise intro involving faux newsreels and direct-to-camera interviews with government drones or corporate mouthpieces, an alien spaceship stalled above Johannesburg 20 years earlier, its million passengers helpless and starving. Labeled "prawns" due to their love of scavenging and their disgusting-to-humans physical appearance (a hybrid of the monster from Predator and Pirates of the Caribbean 's squid-faced Davy Jones), the aliens were corralled into an area known as District 9 .

Now, however, the District has devolved into a stinking, violent ghetto, and the multinational entity in charge of it has decided to relocate the refuse-happy residents. Heading up the dangerous task of evictions is Wikus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a dedicated bureaucrat considered expendable by his loathsome boss-cum-father-in-law.

They'd phone home if they could: "We didn't mean to land here," one alien explains. "We mean you no harm. We just want to go home." David Bloomer/TriStar Pictures hide caption

They'd phone home if they could: "We didn't mean to land here," one alien explains. "We mean you no harm. We just want to go home."

Wikus is a bit of a pill; officious and with a sneering superiority, he's unafraid of the prawns and not above threatening the removal of their insectoid offspring should they refuse to relocate. The early scenes, which follow Wikus and a harried TV news crew as they trudge from one hovel to another brandishing eviction notices, have a nerve-jangling tension spiked with dark humor.

MNU In Black? Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is employed by Multi-National United (MNU), a company tasked with researching the aliens' weapon systems. David Bloomer/TriStar Pictures hide caption

MNU In Black? Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is employed by Multi-National United (MNU), a company tasked with researching the aliens' weapon systems.

Seamlessly blending the natural and the unnatural, Blomkamp layers visual gags (signs warning "No Non-Human Loitering") with aural (alien conversations that sound like extreme intestinal distress) while advancing a plot rife with references to E.T. , The Fly and Alien Nation. References to apartheid are a given.

The wonder is that despite its obvious roots, District 9 feels staggeringly original. Channeling Cloverfield 's on-the-fly shooting style and Paul Verhoeven's energy and anti-corporate sensibility (there's even a cameo by what looks like RoboCop's ED-209), the movie rarely holds still. And while this restlessness has predictable consequences for character development — only Wikus feels three-dimensional — it's difficult to care. As corporate bigwigs lust after alien technology and the aliens lust after cat food (can a Fancy Feast endorsement be far behind?), District 9 gradually narrows its focus and widens its ambitions. The final struggle between alien and human will be played out not on the ground but in Wikus' bloodstream, a war zone less visible but infinitely more consequential.

Web Resources

“District 9” Movie Critical Review

District 9 in the sci-fi thriller genre tells about the arrival of a UFO shortly on the territory of modern Johannesburg, a South African troubled metropolis. Contrary to expectations of a hostile invasion, the aliens are refugees from their planet and appear before the viewer dying of hunger and huddled together (Blomkamp). Aliens are moved to a camp called District 9, which turns to be another prison for them (Blomkamp). The film is a satirist comparison with the racial segregation policy of apartheid dominated in the same South Africa.

Unlike the typical depiction in other films, the picture of aliens’ arrival on Earth stands out to me. I like the most that Blomkamp uses many documentary elements, which enhances the realism and makes the film not only entertainment but also a reason to think about the need for justice in our world. The many filmic elements and excellent digital effects make viewers feel that the happening in the movie is real. Starting with the film’s introductory part, cinematic techniques, including news footage, civilian testimonies, expert interviews, and how they are edited together, make me feel like a real eyewitness to the events. In addition, the protagonist’s interview scene, using mise-en-scene and background sounds such as keyboard clicks and paper shuffling, creates him as a realistic character. After watching the movie, I have questions about why Blomkamp depicted only one alien on the ship as a sentient being.

To summarize, District 9 tells the story of human contact with aliens, drawing parallels with the policy of apartheid in South Africa. Being a fantastic action movie, the film is more like a documentary about real events due to filmic elements such as cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound, and editing. Its main message is to force us to think about the harsh reality of the real world, its absurdity and prejudice, which we must fight as Nelson Mandela and the black South African population did.

Blomkamp, Neill, director. District 9 . Sony Pictures Releasing, 2009.

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A Review of Neill Blomkamp's Film District 9

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• Violence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.
• In 1982, a massive star ship bearing a bedraggled alien population, nicknamed "The Prawns," appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa. Twenty-eight years later, the initial welcome by the human population has faded. The refugee camp where the aliens were located has deteriorated into a militarized ghetto called District 9, where they are confined and exploited in squalor. In 2010, the munitions corporation, Multi-National United, is contracted to forcibly evict the population with operative Wikus van der Merwe in charge. In this operation, Wikus is exposed to a strange alien chemical and must rely on the help of his only two new 'Prawn' friends. — Kenneth Chisholm ([email protected])
• The film opens with a documentary-style series of interviews that introduce the story: twenty years prior, an alien ship arrives above Johannesburg, South Africa. It hovers above the city for three months without any contact; eventually humans take the initiative and cut into the ship. They discover a large group of aliens who are malnourished and sick. The aliens are later assessed as being "workers", with their leadership mysteriously missing (it is hypothesized that a plague may have wiped out all of the leadership-caste). Grainy footage shows part of the ship (supposedly a command module) falling to Earth, but nobody has been able to find it, leaving the ship still hovering but inoperable. The creatures are given permission to leave their craft and live on Earth but are housed in a squalid government camp consisting mostly of dilapidated one to two room shacks. The alien race's true name is never learned; they are primarily referred to as "prawns", a derogatory term referring to the bottom-feeding sea creature they resemble or, more rarely, "non-humans". Overcrowding and militarization eventually turn the area into a slum known as District 9. A massive black market is set up between the aliens and a group of Nigerians primarily led by Mumbo, a paraplegic warlord. In addition to inter-species prostitution, the Nigerians exchange canned cat food for alien weapons, of which the cat food has an effect similar to catnip on the aliens. The present story takes place in 2010. Patience over the alien situation among the human population of Johannesburg has run out and control over them has been contracted to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company that shows little regard for the aliens' welfare. MNU's actual agenda is their interest in the aliens' advanced weaponry, but its integration with alien biology makes it useless to humans. An MNU field operative named Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is tasked with moving 1.8 million aliens to a new camp, District 10, located 240 km from Johannesburg, with help from private security forces working for MNU. MNU teams serving warrants for the relocation of the aliens find caches of contraband items, including weapons, in many alien shacks. Wikus himself oversees several inspections and is assisted by Koobus Venter, a belligerent MNU military operative whose tactics with the aliens are ruthless and cruel. In another shack, not far away, an alien named Christopher distills a mysterious black substance that has taken him 20 years to find the components for and stores it in a small black cylinder. While serving and eviction notice to Christopher, and searching his shack, Wikus finds the cylinder which squirts its contents into his face. He becomes almost instantly nauseous and collects the device as evidence. Wikus returns to his office and grows increasingly ill throughout the day, the side-effects of the black fluid becoming more prominent. He returns home that evening and collapses at a surprise party in his house. He is rushed to a hospital where a doctor discovers his left arm has metamorphosed into that of a prawn's. Wikus is then taken into custody by MNU, the cylinder is confiscated, and a series of tests and experiments are performed on him. Most surprising to those studying him, is that his DNA has been altered to the point, that he can operate the alien's weapons with both his alien hand, and human hand. The scientists discover that his DNA is currently "in balance" with the alien DNA, which is gradually transforming him completely into a prawn. With the permission of Wikus' ruthless father-in-law, they decide to harvest his body for biological material at this critical point, to see if they can figure out how to get the same reaction in other human subjects later on. However, during the attempted vivisection, Wikus overpowers his captors and escapes, fleeing from MNU. Attempting to return home, he finds MNU agents already there. Making his way across the city, he is shocked when an all-points bulletin is put out for his capture, with doctored footage showing him having "interacted" with the aliens in an unsavory way. With nowhere else to turn to, Wikus finds refuge in District 9. Wikus returns to Christopher's run-down shack where he finds the alien's small son. It is hinted that Christopher might be a surviving member of the prawn leadership caste, as he shows much more knowledge of how alien technology works, possesses or at least found the command module, and interacts with MNU officials more articulately than other aliens. Looking around inside, it, Wikus is shocked to find that hidden under the shack, is the mother ship's command module. Christopher explains to Wikus that the cylinder he took, was the power source that could power the module to return to the ship...where the prawn explains there would be technology to reverse the man's current mutation! In order to get the cylinder back from MNU, Wikus steals some alien weaponry from Mumbo and his gang, with Mumbo vowing to capture Wikus and eat his mutated arm (his witch doctor believes this will give him the power to operate the alien weaponry). With Christopher's help they launch an assault on MNU and successfully retrieve the fuel cylinder. While there, Christopher discovers that MNU has been conducting horrific experiments on his people, before he and Wikus fight their way back to District 9. However, after seeing what the humans are doing to his race, Christopher's priorities have changed, with him claiming that Wikus' cure will take three years, while he (Christopher) attempts to find a way to seek help for the other Prawns in Johannesburg. Furious, Wikus knocks Christopher unconscious and powers up the ship himself. The MNU mercenaries target Wikus and destroy one of the command module's engines, causing it to crash land inside District 9. After Wikus is captured by MNU, a battle between the MNU mercenaries and Mumbo's gang breaks out. After a protracted firefight, the Nigerians capture Wikus. Just before Wikus' arm is chopped off, Christopher's son (using the command module controls) activates several systems in the mothership, including the autopilot routine of a mechanized battle suit; it slaughters Mumbo and his men after they fire on it. Wikus enters the alien walker battle suit, and after initially attempting to flee, returns and rescues Christopher. Armed with a lightning cannon, tracking missiles, and a high-powered machine gun, Wikus begins to fight the MNU men. After being knocked over by an anti-tank sniper round, he convinces Christopher to return to the shuttle without him, over Christopher's objections. Christopher promises Wikus that he will return in three years to repair his body. Christopher then boards the shuttle and activates a tractor beam which returns the command module to the mother ship. The mother ship powers up with a loud, rolling boom and flies off. On TV, humans cheer as the ship leaves Earth. Wikus' battle suit is hit in the back and the suit ejects him. Wikus, heavily wounded, begins dragging himself away from Koobus Venter, the sole survivor of an MNU squad, but is quickly caught. As he prepares to shoot Wikus, other prawns appear, attacking and dismembering Venter. The film concludes with another series of interviews and news broadcasts, providing human opinions on the events that unfolded. The aliens are successfully moved to District 10, which now has a population of 2.5 million and is growing. One of Wikus' coworkers hacks MNU's database and publicly exposes their illegal genetic experiments. There are many differing theories on Wikus' fate. Some people believe that he either left on the mother ship, is in hiding, was captured by MNU or a government agency. Some interviewees hypothesize that the aliens are planning to return with a full army and declare war on humanity. An interview with Wikus' wife reveals a small metal rose was left on her doorstep (Wikus has earlier demonstrated his affection for his wife with similar handmade gifts). Her friends have told her that it could not have possibly been Wikus, but she appears unsure. In the final scene, an alien with a bandaged left arm is shown in a junk yard, fashioning a rose out of scrap metal.

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• District 9 Summary

by Neill Blomkamp

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Written by people who wish to remain anonymous

An alien ship has parked itself over Johannesburg, South Africa in the early 1980s. The humans cut through the ship to find an alien race that is scared and malnourished. Then united relief organizations bring resources including food to take care of the alien race. Thus, District 9 is formed as a place of relief, but it eventually turns into a slum where the aliens live. Weapons are found and it becomes a dangerous zone. Then riots begin to breakout with the South African people demanding they leave the planet. The aliens begin causing damage to South African property and disrupting society, even killing people.

The South African government then hires Multinational United (MNU), a military group to remove the aliens and relocate them to a new location. Wikus is chosen to lead the relocation. He goes door to door to get the aliens to get them to sign eviction notices.

We find two aliens and a child alien searching for their alien technology because there is a fluid inside that they want. They are creating something that they’ve been working on for 20 years. Wikus goes into their shack and finds the canister with fluid inside and it sprays in Wikus’ face. Soon after Wikus throws up, then has black liquid dripping from his nose just before his fingernails begin to fall off. It appears he is falling apart from the inside out from the liquid.

We discover that the South African warlords have been collecting weapons from the aliens in exchange for cat food which the aliens love to eat. But the warlords aren’t able to use the weapons because it requires the DNA of the aliens to operate them. So, the warlords kill the aliens and eat them in order to find a way to operate the weapons. At home Wikus is getting worse and there is a birthday party for him, but he is so sick that he vomits black liquid all over the cake and has to be taken to the hospital. Once at the hospital the doctor removes the cast from his broken left arm to find that his hand has turned into an alien hand. MNU takes him from the hospital and begins to run tests on him. They learn that Wikus can fire the alien weapons and they begins to harvest his organs so that they can allow soldiers to use the advanced weaponry, but Wikus escapes from the testing facility and becomes the most valuable business asset on the planet.

Wikus hides in the alien refugee camp where he seeks a place to hide in the alien’s home who created the fluid. He makes an agreement with the alien to get the fluid for him so they can operate their ship and in return the alien will change Wikus back into a human. After they retrieve the fluid the alien tells him it will take 3 years to turn him back. Wikus arms himself with the alien weaponry and protects the alien and his son so that they can leave.

The alien and his son make it to the ship and Wikus is left behind in District 9 after killing all of the MNU soldiers. The alien ship leaves the planet and we find out that no one knows what happened to Wikus after that day. His wife receives flowers made out of metal. And in the last shot we see a Prawn crafting metal flowers; it’s Wikus fully transformed.

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District 9 Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for District 9 is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What does MNU manufacture?

They are a weapons manufacturer.

The film District 9

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Ridley Scott borrows a lot from the horror genre. The film is claustrophobic set to the tone of a classic horror. Quick cuts, sudden sporadic violence, some gore, light and shadows all combine with a soundtrack that dictates the tone and pace. of...

Study Guide for District 9

District 9 study guide contains a biography of director Neill Blomkamp, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About District 9
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for District 9

District 9 essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of District 9, directed by Neill Blomkamp.

• Unstable Allegories of Eviction and Othering in District 9
• Analysis of Film Form and Meaning in District 9 (Blomkamp, 2009)

Wikipedia Entries for District 9

• Introduction

• International
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District 9 - Close Viewing and Film Analysis

Subject: English

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

29 November 2017

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