District 9: Sci-Fi Allegory for South Africa's Racial Trauma & Discrimination, Schemes and Mind Maps of Japanese Language

Download District 9: Sci-Fi Allegory for South Africa's Racial Trauma & Discrimination and more Schemes and Mind Maps Japanese Language in PDF only on Docsity! IS S U E 6 1 S C R E E N E D U C A T IO N 137 Neill Blomkamp’s 2009 science fiction blockbuster captivated audiences around the world, garnering four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. While genres like horror, science fiction and action are undeniably popular with viewers, these sorts of films are rarely considered ‘serious’ enough for Oscar consideration. So what made District 9 – a film about aliens and spaceships – so different? Its spectacular effects and familiar science fiction story about an extra- terrestrial invasion make it pleasurable to watch, but by focusing on humanity’s xenopho- bic treatment of the aliens in contemporary Johannesburg, District 9 also functions as a powerful allegory for the very real traumas that faced South Africa, the film’s country of production, during and after apartheid. Even the title District 9 evokes associations with South Africa’s segregated past: District Six was an area outside of Cape Town that the government declared ‘white only’ in the 1960s, forcing the removal of over 60,000 non-white residents from their homes. By employing elements of documentary filmmaking to tell its tale, District 9 acknowledges from within its own diegesis that the boundaries between fiction and the real can be powerfully and meaningfully blurred. District 9 is not the only film that employs the structures and iconographies of a particular genre to make a political statement. Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) is a zombie movie that makes a powerful comment on the North American civil rights movement that rocked the country during the 1960s and 1970s. Many science fiction films of the 1950s – including The Day the Earth Stood ApArtheid, SpectAcle And the reAl From District Six to District 9 AlexAndrA Heller-nicHolAs FILM A S TEX T 138 IS S U E 6 1 S C R E E N E D U C A T IO N Still (Robert Wise, 1951), The War of the Worlds (Byron Haskin, 1953), Them! (Gordon Douglas, 1954) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956) – are broadly understood as allegorical responses to the Cold War and the threat of nuclear warfare that marked this period. Science-fiction-as-allegory was also certainly not restricted to the United States; the famous Japanese monster film Godzilla (Gojira, Ishirô Honda, 1954) is almost impossible to watch without thinking of Japan’s involvement in World War II and the bombing of Hiroshima. District 9 clearly earns a place in this history of the politically minded science fiction film, but it also adopts elements from other genres and categories including horror, 1980s action movies (especially the ‘buddy’ film typified by Richard Donner’s 1987 classic Lethal Weapon), conspiracy thrillers and even Japanese anime traditions. Its incorporation of other genres gives District 9 ample room to play with a range of thematic and stylistic elements that unite to create its final impact. District 9 was co-written by Blomkamp and based on his 2005 short film Alive in Joburg. The film begins with Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) from private military organisation Multinational United (MNU) being interviewed about the corporation’s relocation program in District 9. Wikus is grant- ed the task of leading the operation by his corrupt boss and father-in-law, Piet Smit (Louis Minnaar). With his colleagues, Wikus must evict the 1.8 million aliens from their shanty-like homes in District 9 to what he later describes as a ‘concentra- tion camp’ 200 miles outside Johannesburg. These aliens – derogatorily referred to by humans as ‘prawns’ – arrived in Johannesburg in 1982 in a large spaceship and, after being discovered onboard their craft in ill health, they were housed in the slum-like conditions of District 9. Wikus becomes ill after accidentally spilling an alien liquid on his skin, and MNU, with Piet’s support, conducts torturous experiments on him. Piet then releases false information to Wikus’ wife and the public that the infection is a result of human–alien sexual relations. With nowhere else to go, Wikus returns to District 9 and, overcoming his discriminatory attitudes, rallies with the alien Christopher in an attempt to cure his infection and to help Christopher and his son return to their ship. Through this story, District 9 utilises the generic elements of the science fiction film to critique both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. IS S U E 6 1 S C R E E N E D U C A T IO N 141 professional experts on a subject or witnesses to a story, and this mode is reflected in District 9’s interviews with doctors and other experts in addition to Wikus’ family and friends. That so many of the attitudes and explanations given by these experts are wrong also raises the issue of propaganda, and students and teachers may wish to use Nichols’ documentary modes to discuss how so-called truth is represented for certain political agendas in District 9.4 the ‘WoW!’ FActor While the political and historical aspects of District 9 may appear to be the most immediate sites of critical interest, it is important to not dismiss spectacle. In fact, the film’s most immediate appeal lies not in its political allegory, but rather in the pleasure it offers through its exciting depictions of aliens and spaceships. These aliens were designed by the New Zealand WETA Workshop group, famed for their work with Peter Jackson on the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003; Jackson also produced District 9). The spectacle of special effects in District 9 provides much more than just something exciting for viewers to watch, however, and many of the film’s most memorable and sympathetic depictions of the aliens occur when they are anthropomorphised. Small additions to their characters – for example, aliens are shown at different points wearing human clothes such as a pinwheel hat and a pink bra – transform foreign and monstrous entities into something very human. Their communications with each other also highlight their similarity to humans, such as when Christopher tells his friend early in the film to ‘be polite’ to Wikus and the MNU officials. This merger of technological spectacle and narrative significance via the humanising of the aliens is nowhere more overt than when Christopher and his son rise from the slums in their cobbled-together spaceship to return to the giant ship that has hovered above Johannes- burg for the last twenty years. The father and son are symboli- cally reunited with the ‘mother’ ship, restoring the nuclear family unit that had been disrupted by the earthly corruption of xenophobia embodied by MNU. While many argue that the problematic depiction of Nigerians makes it far from the progressive anti- discrimination film it purports to be, there is little doubt that District 9 powerfully deploys a science fiction concept to examine and explore various elements of South Africa’s past and present. This the father and son are symbolically reunited With the ‘mother’ ship, restoring the nuclear family unit that had been disrupted by the earthly corruption of xenophobia embodied by mnu. 142 IS S U E 6 1 S C R E E N E D U C A T IO N allegorical force relies heavily upon the pleasures of its tech- nological spectacle, and if District 9 makes an impact upon its viewers, the role of these pleasures cannot be undervalued. Through its science fiction and mockumentary elements in particular, District 9 addresses a range of very real issues facing South Africa today. That such a complex array of issues is allegorically presented in such an upbeat manner make it an ideal text through which to explore the power of genre, style and meaning in cinema. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas is a film researcher based in Melbourne. She speaks regularly on genre at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and her first book, Rape-Revenge Film: A Critical Study, is due to be released by McFarland Publishers in the US in 2011. • Endnotes 1 For differing views on this subject, see Nicole Stamp, ‘District 9 is Racist’, Racialicious.com, ‹http://www. racialicious.com/2009/08/18/district-9-is-racist -alternate-perspective/›, accessed 1 December 2010; Tola Onanuga, ‘Why District 9 Isn’t Racist Against Nigerians’, The Guardian, 8 September 2009, ‹http://www.guardian.co. uk/film/filmblog/2009/sep/08/district-9-racism›, accessed 1 December 2010. 2 Andrew O’Hehir, ‘Is Apartheid Acceptable—For Giant Bugs’, Salon, 12 August 2009, ‹http://www.salon.com/ entertainment/movies/beyond_the_multiplex/feature/ 2009/08/12/blomkamp›, accessed 1 December 2010. 3 Bill Nichols, ‘The Voice of Documentary’, in Bill Nichols (ed.), Movies and Methods: An Anthology, vol. 1, California University Press, Berkeley, 1985, pp.258–273. 4 For a more accessible and updated reflection on Nichols’ documentary modes and how they apply to contemporary screen cultures more broadly, the following chapter is recommended: John Izod & Richard Kilborn, ‘The Documentary’, in John Hill & Pamela Church (eds), The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp.426–433.