The Chiz

So, District 9 opens in South Africa today. Trust me there is no good reason NOT to see this film! It is awesome!

O, so yes, it is a sci-fi fliek which if course is already putting loads of people off. But for us as South Africa’s it is way more than that. It is parable, allegory, myth building and soul searching all rolled into one.

Let’s just start with what it looks like. It is shot in almost a hand held, documentary style that gets you right up into the face of the action and the characters. A film crew tracks Wickus Van De Merwe through the film, recording his mission. It is nervy and tense and you do leave the cinema feeling like you have been in a fire fight. That’s what I love. What other sci-fi film can you remember that puts you so full face and frontal in the action?

Hen there is what it sounds like. Man, Township music, South African language, swearing continuously in Afrikaans… Man it rocks! Admittedly it takes a while to get used to hearing your own accent on a screen when you’re so used to those Americans, but once you get over that, you sink into an eerily familiar world. Yup, right down to the Nigerian gangs!

The cast is great too. Vanessa Haywood and Charlto Copley are really believable as the principle couple and the prawns, for all their weirdness, work! Despite the fact that this is a pretty serious film, you kind of get a sense that everyone had fun making it. The performances are that comfortable.

Then the content. Well, obviously for us, it’s a re-casting of District Six, forced removals and the apartheid mentality, the xenophobic attacks and most of our very chequered history. The thing is film maker Blomkamp doesn’t so much dissect one thing as plunge into many things which set your head to reeling and free associating. Once question you must come out of this movie with is, “How much have things changed?” Are we all not just prejudiced at heart? Protecting what we hold dear against ANY difference? Is that not the human condition? (sic!)

I am sure if you conducted an in-depth socio political analysis of the story, you’d find lots on inconsistencies and perhaps even contradiction. But this is also a tale of redemption and is NOT a historical document.

District 9 perfectly captures the sense of mania that living in Johannesburg can entail. By jamming real aliens into the mix, it also reveals the isolation and fear of living in a big city, but welds it with pure human moments of change, and growth.

In short this is a great film, and I am not surprised the Americans lived it... And wow, the aliens came to Joburg, Not LA, who woulda thought?
Just be warned that it is pretty violent and gory! Those alien weapons are hectic bru!
But make sure you see it! This is a big film. For us, for Blomkamp, for everyone in it!