District 9

District 9

District 9 is one of my favourite sci-fi movies and I think that comes down to how different it is with it taking the classical alien invasion trope and flipping it completely and creating a story about modern day xenophobia, immigration and media propaganda. 

The start of the film is kinda set up looking like a normal alien invasion film with a big flying saucer coming down to earth and floating above South Africa which is very similar to the mother ship from Independence day and has the same eerie mysterious vibe and the next scene of the film are set up with this atmosphere of fear/tension as the ship is breached but that alien invasion trope wears of very quickly after we see the sick aliens crawling around in their own shit struggling to survive. 

The film then takes a really big turn into a kind of immigration/xenophobia focus with several years later the aliens being treated like people in a 3rd world country having to live in favela like constructions and forced to scrounge and vulture off what they can get while the government forces them to stay within the camp and treats them like animals.   

I really enjoy the messages that the film tries to convey it could have been done really easily if the aliens were just replaced with humans in a 3rd world country but with the sci fi elements the film takes a whole new aspect and viewing of  immigration and the both sides of discrimination against a different species.

The Aliens just want to get back to their home planet so they can get on with life back at home but they can’t as they are stranded on earth and all they want is to return home. This is just like immigration today with people having to flee their homes for whatever reason and seek survival in other countries they want to return home but they can’t. Meanwhile on the other side Humans are annoyed at the aliens as it is costing money to keep them on earth by having to supply food and shelter for ten as well as other things and so the humans are angry that they have to deal with this extra tax as well as the fact they take up land and so most people want them gone and discriminate against them. Again this is similar to the real world with people wanting immigrants and migrants to go back to their own country because it costs their country to house them and feed them. 

Neil Blomkamp’s use of setting as well as having the aliens live with some Africans in poverty alongside the aliens allows us to anchor in what their life must be like living in the slums and trying to survive as most people know about poverty in Africa so by having the aliens living in the same setting we can begin to imagine their new world and life and the problems they have to deal with all while being stranded on a different planet.