The intensity and cinematography of director Neil Blomkamp%u2019s %u201CDistrict 9%u2033, which is up for a Best Picture Oscar, are to be marveled over. But the sci-fi thriller%u2019s pace and visuals are also matched by the film%u2019s political message. As conceptually original as the first %u201CMatrix%u201D film, %u201CDistrict 9%u2033 also serves as a critique, par excellence, of the horrors of today%u2019s global capitalism. And as such, it easily rivals notable films like %u201CBlood Diamond%u201D and %u201CThe Constant Gardener%u201D.
%u201CDistrict 9%u2033 opens with a documentary-style exposition: An enormous alien spacecraft has entered the earth%u2019s atmosphere and coasted to a halt, above contemporary Johannesburg, South Africa. After three months of seeing no activity from the ship, the world governments send an expedition to investigate the craft. The expedition enters the ship and finds it filled with malnourished, insect-like aliens. It is theorized that the aliens were once part of a larger fleet of ships. But they somehow detached from that fleet, became lost, and ran out of fuel and food. Helpless, the aliens then %u201Cwashed ashore%u201D, into Earth%u2019s orbit.
This discovery quickly turns the expedition into a %u201Chumanitarian crisis%u201D, to save the dying aliens. But as is well-known, the modus operandi of any (so-called) foreign aid mission today is %u201Cdisaster capitalism%u201D. And this is no different when it comes to extra-terrestrial aid. The world governments enlist Multi-National United (MNU), to assist in the %u201Chumanitarian%u201D operation. As the name implies, MNU is a kind of conglomerate of logistical and defense corporations and contractors. And as such, they have a profit-motive.
MNU sets-up an alien %u201Crefugee camp%u201D in Johannesburg, that soon becomes a militarized slum, known as District 9. The aliens are moved into District 9 and are subjected to MNU%u2019s martial law. Blackwater-like mercenaries are hired to violently police the District, while MNU conducts raids on the alien%u2019s temporary living quarters, in attempts to steal alien technology for weapons development. MNU, it turns out, is a major component of the military-industrial complex. And it hopes to further its bio-weaponry research by monopolizing on the alien%u2019s vulnerability.
Meanwhile, local Africans become angered by the alien presence. Already impoverished by the character of global capitalism, the locals see MNU%u2019s focus on the aliens as an even further distraction form their own poverty. Thus, a new form of racism evolves, and the aliens are targeted with a racial slur: %u201CPrawn%u201D. Social tensions between the local humans and the Prawns continue to mount. And MNU uses this racial hatred as an excuse mobilize a %u201Cresettlement%u201D of the Prawns, away from the restless locals. The resettlement program, of course, serves as a further cover for MNU to steal the Prawn technology for weapons development.
MNU%u2019s dual exploitation of the Africans and the Prawns, though, soon explodes. While conducting a raid on a Prawn%u2019s living quarters, Wikus Van De Merwe, the head of MNU%u2019s resettlement program, is exposed to the chemicals in some of the Prawn technology. And from that point, the situation in District 9 begins to radically change, in more ways than one%u2026.
This fantastical premise of %u201CDistrict 9%u2033 could have fallen apart in execution, as is always the case with sci-fi epics. The bar for suspension of disbelief is set particularly high with such movies. And it is rarely met. But Blomkamp%u2019s treatment of the script results in one of the strongest political films in recent history. Much of this is due to the realism created by the setting, itself. The movie was shot in a real Johannesburg slum, one which was recently the target of an actual resettlement program.
Adding to this %u201Cpure%u201D setting is the fact that film is presented as a documentary. The story, itself, unfolds via interview clips with MNU employees, spliced with footage from embedded cameramen filming the resettlement, as well as with footage from security cameras in District 9 and other locales. The special effects, as well, are used not to dazzle (as is in the case with many thrillers), but rather to support the realism of the film%u2019s events. None of the the violence in the film is hyperbolic or self-justifying. Instead, it is presented as the raw meaninglessness of war, violence at the %u201Czero level%u201D, which is rarely captured by real photojournalists on the nightly news.
On an equally rewarding level, the plot%u2019s density does not sacrifice the agonizing character development of Wikus, himself, which equally drives the movie forward, to its phenomenal conclusion.
But on a grander, more philosophical sense, what %u201CDistrict 9%u2033 addresses is the horrific inhumanity of globalization%u2019s own ideology. Globalization, in itself, is meaningless. What gives it character is its corporatist element, the driving force behind its growth.
Propelled by the inhuman interests of multi-national corporations, the IMF, the World Bank, and the G8 governments, globalization%u2019s ethics are the dehumanized ethics of the global %u201Cmarket%u201D. Such a system considers the profit of the few over the humanity of the countless many. This dynamic is what psychoanalyst Viktor Frankl calls our %u201CExistential Vacuum%u201D, a world totally void of human-oriented values, replaced only by the pursuit of capital.
Thus, in %u201CDistrict 9%u2033, the meaningless deaths of the %u201CPrawns%u201D (supported only by the equally meaningless racism) for the sake corporate profit, is a mirror of our world. The %u201CPrawn%u201D is thus a symbol, a symbol for any individual or group of individuals, who are subjected to the legal violence of global capitalism. The %u201CPrawn%u201D, who is oppressed or murdered for profit in the film, is the same as the impoverished Guatemalan, or Nigerian, or Indian, or American, who dies meaninglessly so shareholder wealth can flourish in the real-world.
As such, %u201CDistrict 9%u2033 serves as the diagnosis of the inhumanity that hallmarks our era. It certainly deserves the Oscar. But more importantly, it deserves to be widely seen and discussed.
Editor%u2019s Note: Stephen Dufrechou is a college professor in Memphis, TN. He is the Editor of Opinion and Analysis for News Junkie Post. Please follow this author on Twitter. His archive may be accessed here.
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