District 9
Genre
General
• What it is
• Conventions
• Expectations
• Based on
• plot pattern
• emotional effects
• setting
• theme
• manner of presentation
• Easy to recognise
• More difficult to explain
Science Fiction
Literature of change
• deals with
• the human reaction to changes in
• science
• technology
• The actual issues in
• Different worlds and different times
• Possibilities and limitations
• Humanity
Subgenres
• Time travel
• Terminator 2
• Aliens
• Men In Black
• Space Opera
• Stat Wars
• Dystopian Future
• Mad Max
• Apocalyptic
• I Am Legend
• Monsters & Mutants
• The thing
• Cyberpunk
• The Martix
• Space Western
• Cowboys & Aliens
,South African Touches
• Title – reference to District 6
• Language
• Van der Merwe
• Soweto
• shacks
• Local actors
• Sharlto Copley
• David James
Director on his South African Sci-Fi
My upbringing in [Johannesburg] had a massive effect on me
o I started to realize that everything to do with segregation and
apartheid
o and now the new xenophobic stuff that’s happening in the city, all
of that dominates my mind, quite a lot of the time.
Then there’s the fact that science fiction is the other big part of my mind
I started to realize that the two fit well together
There’s no message, per se, that I’m trying to get across with the movie.
o It’s rather that I want to present science fiction, and put it in the
environment that affected me.
o In the process, maybe I highlight all the topics that interest me
but I’m not giving any answers
, Themes
List
• First contact
• and what happens after
• Aliens
• different to the norm
• humanised
• Dystopia
• Xenophobia, discrimination
• 2008 outbursts
• National identity
• Whit man gone native
Xenophobia
Critiqued or Reinforced
Critiqued
Real events
• Apartheid era: immigrants experienced violence – did not improve post-
1994
• May 2008 riots – 62 people killed, 41 of whom from other African
countries – armed forces – refugee camps
• Ongoing attacks – April 2015: 8 deaths
Film
• The treatment of the “prawns” is metaphoric of the xenophobic violence
that keeps recurring in South Africa, reminiscent of apartheid-era
discrimination
• Speciesism – xenophobia – racism
Nigerians
• However, its depiction of Nigerians is essentialist, stereotypical, offensive,
and downright lazy
• Banned in Nigeria: Nigerians reduced to cannibals, warlords, gangsters,
linked to voodoo and superstition
• Villain: Obesandjo. President of Nigeria 1999-2007: Olusegun Obasanjo.
• Rijsdijk: “…the Nigerian gangsters yield no such ambiguity […] The
consequences are not only offence caused to Nigerians but also, for the
film, the failure of the xenophobic allegory.” (2015:8)
Fear driving racism
• His body becomes the site of invasion
• his mutation representing the fear of infestation
• this fear drives anti-alien xenophobia
Genre
General
• What it is
• Conventions
• Expectations
• Based on
• plot pattern
• emotional effects
• setting
• theme
• manner of presentation
• Easy to recognise
• More difficult to explain
Science Fiction
Literature of change
• deals with
• the human reaction to changes in
• science
• technology
• The actual issues in
• Different worlds and different times
• Possibilities and limitations
• Humanity
Subgenres
• Time travel
• Terminator 2
• Aliens
• Men In Black
• Space Opera
• Stat Wars
• Dystopian Future
• Mad Max
• Apocalyptic
• I Am Legend
• Monsters & Mutants
• The thing
• Cyberpunk
• The Martix
• Space Western
• Cowboys & Aliens
,South African Touches
• Title – reference to District 6
• Language
• Van der Merwe
• Soweto
• shacks
• Local actors
• Sharlto Copley
• David James
Director on his South African Sci-Fi
My upbringing in [Johannesburg] had a massive effect on me
o I started to realize that everything to do with segregation and
apartheid
o and now the new xenophobic stuff that’s happening in the city, all
of that dominates my mind, quite a lot of the time.
Then there’s the fact that science fiction is the other big part of my mind
I started to realize that the two fit well together
There’s no message, per se, that I’m trying to get across with the movie.
o It’s rather that I want to present science fiction, and put it in the
environment that affected me.
o In the process, maybe I highlight all the topics that interest me
but I’m not giving any answers
, Themes
List
• First contact
• and what happens after
• Aliens
• different to the norm
• humanised
• Dystopia
• Xenophobia, discrimination
• 2008 outbursts
• National identity
• Whit man gone native
Xenophobia
Critiqued or Reinforced
Critiqued
Real events
• Apartheid era: immigrants experienced violence – did not improve post-
1994
• May 2008 riots – 62 people killed, 41 of whom from other African
countries – armed forces – refugee camps
• Ongoing attacks – April 2015: 8 deaths
Film
• The treatment of the “prawns” is metaphoric of the xenophobic violence
that keeps recurring in South Africa, reminiscent of apartheid-era
discrimination
• Speciesism – xenophobia – racism
Nigerians
• However, its depiction of Nigerians is essentialist, stereotypical, offensive,
and downright lazy
• Banned in Nigeria: Nigerians reduced to cannibals, warlords, gangsters,
linked to voodoo and superstition
• Villain: Obesandjo. President of Nigeria 1999-2007: Olusegun Obasanjo.
• Rijsdijk: “…the Nigerian gangsters yield no such ambiguity […] The
consequences are not only offence caused to Nigerians but also, for the
film, the failure of the xenophobic allegory.” (2015:8)
Fear driving racism
• His body becomes the site of invasion
• his mutation representing the fear of infestation
• this fear drives anti-alien xenophobia
