Trailer Tuesday: District 9

District 9, which is sure to become the most successful South African-set film of all time, is one of those strange movies that materialise out of nowhere to become one of the most highly anticipated flicks of the year.

District 9 was unveiled at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, and it was proclaimed an instant sci-fi classic, worthy of sitting alongside the likes of Aliens, and the more tonally similar RoboCop.

District 9 is directed by South Africa's own Neill Blomkamp, an animator-turned filmmaker who was handpicked by District 9's producer Peter (Lord of the Rings) Jackson to helm the Halo movie adaptation - well, before the project was canned. Jackson, however, was so impressed with Blomkamp's work that he raised the funding to expand Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joburg into a feature length production. The result? Dark, documentary-style District 9.


Featuring a largely South African cast, and filmed largely on location in Johannesburg's Katlehong township, the plot of District 9 is as follows:

Twenty eight years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them.

Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare - they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA.

The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable - he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.


It is perhaps a tad disappointing that South Africans are yet again portrayed as violent racist/xenophobic oppressors, but I guess that's a tag we'll forever be stuck with. Then again, we are a nation that only last year was attacking our immigrant population, robbing them and even setting a lucky few on fire. Wheee!

You have to marvel at the irony that for all the sober but uplifting Cry, the Beloved Countrys and Yesterdays South African filmmakers unleash on the world, it's crime (Tsotsi) and oppression that get our movie-making efforts noticed.

Anyway, District 9 opens in the US in 2 weeks time on 14 August. South African audiences will have to wait until 28 August to watch the film. In the meantime, why not check out the film's viral website?