CineTV Contest: District 9

CineTV released a prompt a couple of days ago asking us to talk about a film that has Illness as a part of its plot (at first when reading the prompt itself I assumed that it suggested that we discuss films that we turn to when we ourselves are feeling under the weather.)

Here's A Link To The Post If You'd Like To Check It Out.

Source

District 9

While there are plenty of films that popped into my head when I initially thought of the idea itself, one movie stood out among the other ones in my mind, and it's this one District 9

The Initial plot of the film itself revolves around an alien mothership coming down to Earth, and South Africa to be precise, and while it hangs over the city of Johannesburg the eyes of the world look to the country and more specifically the city for what may happen.

What follows is the ship hovering ominously for months, until the people finally cut their way inside to find out what's going on. They find aliens living in desperate conditions, and the government moves the hundreds of thousands/ millions of malnourished creatures into ramshackle camps - which are the only way they can deal with the number of them.

Within a short space of time, the camps turn into crime-riddled slums, where gangs move in to take advantage of the aliens, and trade cat food - which is all they eat - for alien tech and weaponry, which they then use to dominate the mostly peaceful population of "Prawns" as they're nicknamed due to their appearance.

It's one of my favourite Sci-fi films

It's directed by Neill Blomkamp, who I really like, and since this film, I've watched the other movies he has created.

The Style

The film has a very gritty and realistic style, and the way they handled a story such as this is perfect. As a way to get a boots-on-the-ground feeling, they opted for a very handheld, almost journalistic approach, as if we the audience are watching it all unfold from the edge of our seats.

To explain some of the story we're shown interviews from different cast members, who do a great job of providing key elements of information and exposition in a realistic way that aids the scope of this tale.

Here's an opening scene of the film which introduces us to the main character of the film, and the situation he finds himself in.

The Main Characters Struggle

Wikus Van De Merwe played by (Sharlto Copley) is a worker for a group called MNU, who are tasked with serving notices to the 1.9 million prawns living in the camp and making them sign the document stating that they will be moved from the camp, to a nicer one outside and away from the city.

This is due to rising tension between locals and the prawns.

It is no easy task. While talking with one prawn about signing the paper, a fight breaks out among them and he is injured in the process. Upon waking up in the hospital he finds out that he has been exposed to some sort of infection that is slowly turning him into a prawn, and he has to do all he can to find a way to get cured.

Because of the style of filmmaking used in this film, everything seems very close and personal. In a way, we don't feel like we're watching a film, instead, we very much feel like we're over the character's shoulder as all of this is going on. Due to this, his transition into a prawn feels oddly sickening, and we are incredibly attached to this character and his race to find a way of stopping this from happening.

He is a happy-go-lucky sort of bumbling character, and the development he undergoes through the runtime of this film is amazing. In a way, he reminds me of Taika Waititi's character Viago in "What We Do In The Shadows"

District 9 is such a great film, and is well worth watching for anyone even remotely interested in sci-fi. But, even if you're not interested in sci-fi, but enjoy small-scale stories with a huge background, it's worth checking out.

The SFX in the film has held up really well too, which is amazing, especially considering there are films that were only made a few years ago that already look dated.