A brilliant movie on so many levels

Rating: 9/10 (1 March 2013)

One of the great things about watching this film with a South African is that you do get a different perspective of the film that you would otherwise. I saw it first in the cinema and then at a film night when one my South African friend came around as well. Her comments were that a number of the scenes in the film were reflective of what she remember in South Africa, particularly during the apartheid period (despite her being too young to actually remember South Africa then). Also, she came from Johannesberg, so she could also attest to the slums that were there.
I guess the reason that this film was set in Jo'berg was to bring to light the nature of apartheid and also the living conditions of the blacks in the city. Areas like District 9 existed and in many cases still exist today. In fact South Africa is a very dangerous country and many of the whites have been emigrated in mass since the security situation is deteriorating drastically. I has seen images of houses that are built like modern day fortresses simply because crime in the country has risen so high. I even remember as a kid that Jo'berg was described as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
This film plays on two levels though, because in one level it reflects the nature of apartheid, but on another it reflects not so much our fear, but also our disgust at something that is not like us. The Prawns in the film are strong, but they are also weak. The created an addiction to catfood that pretty much keeps them in poverty. In fact many of the poor and disadvantaged are kept weak through the use of drugs. As a friend of mine said once, the reason that many of the poor remain poor is because they are addicted to drugs and see no way of escaping that endless cycle. In fact people can act against them in illegal ways, but because of their addiction, their will to fight back does not exist.
The film's ending, in a way, is kept deliberately vague. While the film does end, and it ends really well, there is still the question of what happens next. This is not a happy ending, but it is an ending that leaves us to think about what we saw in the film. The fact that some of the aliens managed to escape Earth makes us wonder if Earth is now in danger. The way we treated and abused the visitors is not going to be going unnoticed, but then it depends on whether these aliens were a slave race or not. I have seen other films like that (Alien Nation rings a bell) where the visitors are not some highly sophisticated entities, but come about as rather pathetic.