District 9, produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Johannesburg native Neill Blomkamp, is a science fiction film used to portray a scene of a partide. The science fiction genre was chosen to press social and racial issues as well as problems with the government. Its takes on an informative standpoint being shot in a documentary style. The movie follows the path of Wikus Van Der Merwe. Wikus is charged with the task of overseeing the eviction of an extraterrestrial species labeled as "prawns."
Only ten minutes into the film, the viewer comes across two issues that correlate with previous topics. We see during the interviews at the beginning of the film a man refer to these aliens as "prawns." A woman explains later that this is a derogatory term used for the alien that references them to crustacean bottom-feeders or scavengers. Immediately after her comment, an officer (authority figure) says, "well that's what they look like right? They look like prawns." This can be linked to the movie Hotel Rwanda when then Hutus are constantly referring the Tutsis as "cockroaches" and treating them as such. Yet this is not the only time that and place that a derogatory term is used to label the "other" or outsider. Most every race and culture has a similar term for anyone other than themselves. It is no coincidence then that the human citizens in District 9 refer to the aliens as "prawns."
The other issue is the ensuing eviction of the aliens from District 9 in order to relocate them to another camp. This can refer back to Pow Wow Highway and the attempt to remove the Indians from their reserve, given to them by the government. The aliens own District 9 can be viewed as a reservation that was given to them by the earth's government and now they are to be evicted. Wikus even makes a statement that is similar to the colonial mindset toward the Native American saying, "they don't understand the concept or private property. So we have to come there and say, 'Hey, this is our land. Please, will you go.'" However, District 9 is less like Indian reservations and more like the Jewish ghettos or possibly Sarajevo in the sense of there slum state of living. Trash fills the streets and the housing is composed of shacks assorted from sheet metal and scraps of junk. Blomkamp made it to look like the apartheid in South Africa. In this version of apartheid we see the aliens treated as the Africans were in the 20th century; they were separated from the humans, just as the blacks were from the whites. The aliens were classified and labeled by MNU and the humans, this being a similar theme in everything that was covered in the class. The Nazis classified the Jews and homosexuals. The Hutus and Tutsis had classified one another. Africans during the apartheid were forced to carry identification at all times. Classification seems to be centered genocide and racist acts.
Identification is everything when “fighting” against a group of individuals who, based off one thing about them, are no longer accepted into society. I have always found it interesting how the Nazi’s used physical features to help classify people as Jews or Germans. In Europa, Europa, Solomon Perel was successful at hiding his circumsion. Wikus is kind of in the same boat. He is human, but is slowly turning alien. He hides his alien arm and is fine until his arm is noticed. While Perel’s secret is kept a secret, if it would have been found out he probably would not have survived the Holocaust. Wikus survives by living day by day waiting for Christopher to return to change him back and making handmade roses for his wife.
ReplyDeleteYou are right in comparing the aliens to the Pow Wow Indians. They were told to leave the land that the government gave them just like the Indians were asked to leave. Again, all because they were different and also because they had something the governement wanted.
You make an interesting connection between District 9 and the reservations that Native Americans were forced onto. Perhaps the aliens didn’t want to leave because at this moment it was the only land that they had and they weren’t exactly sure where they were being relocated to. While the restrictions placed on aliens resemble more closely those put on the Jewish population, the actual relocation of the aliens is more like that of Native Americans. Both of these groups were placed on land that no one else wanted because it was so bad. They were given land on which they had a slim chance of survival and on which they would struggle a lot. The land they have is too small for the amount of people it is meant for. They have both been exploited by people around them and swindled for profit.
ReplyDeleteThe humans asking the aliens to move out of District 9 might have seemed logical to the humans, however, the aliens had build their homes there for years and are unsure of what kind of situation they will be placed in next or even if they should trust the humans seeing as they have a lot of experience with being mistreated.