District 9
Directed by Neill Blomkamp
Starring Sharlto Copley, Nathalie Boltt, Jason Cope, John Sumner, Sylvaine Strike
Rated R
Release date: August 14, 2009

District 9 is the cinematic find of the year and signals the arrival of a bold new talent in the realm of visionary filmmaking. Director Neill Blomkamp, a native of South Africa expanding on his earlier short film Alive in Joburg, has given us a wondrous creation that merges the cautionary science fiction cinema of the 1950’s, the satirical scarefests of the 1970’s, and the imaginative cross-genre gross-outs of the 1980’s into one audacious and eerily thought-provoking package. Best of all he accomplished this on a budget most so-called “event films” cranked out from the Hollywood sweat shop would have blown on an overabundance of computer-generated imagery and slumming big name stars. District 9 is a marvel of modern storytelling.

In 1982, a city-sized spacecraft appeared in the airspace over Johannesburg, South Africa. Authorities forced their way into the craft and found a large number of alien creatures slowly dying. The aliens were transported from their ship to Johannesburg where a government organization known as MNU established a special camp for the aliens called District 9. The years passed as MNU attempted to figure out how best to exploit these new visitors, now being referred to as “prawns” because of their strange appearance, including trying to learn how to operate their weaponry. In the years since the aliens’ arrival, District 9 has devolved into a slum where crime, poverty, drugs, and prostitution run rampant, mostly due to Nigerian gangs lorded over by the powerful gangster Fundiswa Mhlanga (Mandla Gaduka) and the aliens are forced to trade practically everything they own in exchange for tiniest of Earth-manufactured goods.