Last night I went to see the science fiction film District 9. I had been meaning to go see it, but since I am teaching a text that is somewhat similar ("Bloodchild," by Octavia Butler), I decided that it would be a good time to go see the film.
The film was partially an allegory about racism/apartheid, made in South Africa, with a Boer main character. For those who do not remember, the Boers are the people in South Africa of German/Dutch background. They were the founders of apartheid, and the enforcers of racist laws, though of course, the rest of the white population didn't protest too loudly against these policies, for the most part.
In this film, an alien ship stalls over Johannasburg, drops something, and just sits there. The people break into the ship and find millions of dying insectoid aliens. Strangely, they decide to bring these aliens to earth and put them behind barbed wire, into compounds. They do not let them go home or try to communicate them, but instead institute apartheid against them, and use them for medical research, etc.
I won't spoil this for you in case you go to see it, but I can tell you that the main character changes in some unexpected ways.
2 comments:
Oh eek, you like the scariest things. "The Other" is ever the useful character to propel fiction forward, yes?
It was violent, but not really scary. One came to have compassion for the Prawns, as these creatures were called.
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