Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope
So, is the Saffa sci-fi film that took the US by storm really the best thing since sliced biltong? Could District 9 genuinely be, as some have suggested, an instant classic?
You’d better believe it. Neill Blomkamp’s apartheid allegory not only lives up to the hype, it bloody well goes and surpasses it. Key to the film’s success is the fact that it’s thoroughly South African. From the gritty Johannesburg backdrop and bona fide Saffa accents to a script that’s laced with a sense of humour unique to the Rainbow Nation, this is science fiction as you’ve never seen it before.
The first half of the movie is particularly impressive as we learn how an alien ship broke down above Joburg and the beings inside were herded into a township.
Twenty years later, weapons company MNU are relocating the visitors to a new site with bureaucrat Wikus van der Merwe (Copley) in charge. Things go wrong when he’s exposed to funky stuff in an alien canister and undergoes a weird transformation.
Combining astute social commentary with pulsating action, District 9 is a stunning offering from a Saffa director who’s clearly going places.
Good for: Patriotic Saffas.
PIERRE DE VILLIERS
