Scifi of the Day

District 9 (2009)

Not since Brother from Another Planet has a science fiction movie dealt so openly and effectively with the problems that humans create by dividing themselves up along lines of race and class. When a giant spaceship parks over Johannesburg, explorers are dismayed to find that it’s full of thousands of diseased, helpless aliens — who are now under the care of the South African government. Wikus is a bureaucrat put in charge of relocating the “prawn” from their shantytown to a new refugee camp, and that’s when trouble begins. A dark satire with incredible effects and a gut-punching story, District 9 manages the seemingly-impossible: it’s a political allegory that feels like an action movie.

 

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