Available on DVD at movies4africa from 7th December 2009
By Frances Suselo
What if a leaderless, malnourished alien race gets stranded on Planet Earth? What are we going to do with these visitors?
That is exactly the premise behind the new sci-fi District 9, which sees a gigantic alien spacecraft hovering over Johannesburg, unable to return to wherever it came from. Ill-equipped to deal with such an unprecedented arrival, the South African government decides to simply contain the non-humans in one specific area, called District 9. Over time, District 9 descends into chaos, crime and poverty (much like Soweto, the real-life slum in Johannesburg where the movie was shot). The government's knee-jerk reaction is to relocate the aliens (now derogatorily called "prawns") to another (bigger) area, District 10.
The poor sod responsible for the relocation operation is Wikus van de Merwe, a well-meaning but inept government bureaucrat. Though through no fault of his own, Wikus manages to get into serious trouble, and the MNU (Multi National United), a private military contractor, is then called to District 9 to make sure that all the "prawns" sign their eviction notices. Unsurprisingly, the men with weapons escalate the already tense situation, with disastrous consequences. ~ african-films.suite101.com
Barry Ronge gave this movie a 9/10 rating. What did you think?
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