VARIOUS FILE: South African Alien action thriller "District 9" becomes world-wide box office hit

Record ID: 454112

  • Title: VARIOUS FILE: South African Alien action thriller "District 9" becomes world-wide box office hit
  • Date: 18th September 2009
  • Summary: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR JASON COPE, SAYING "District 9 is based on a short movie called Alive in Joburg, which is a six minute low budget short film made in Johannesburg. We made that about five years ago."
  • Embargoed: 3rd October 2009 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA75VLS97E4SNS3UF9JKZD0YTNI
  • Story Text: District 9," a gritty, low-budget space alien movie with a cast of unknowns, has become the first South African sci-fi film to become a world-wide hit at the box office.
    The sci-fi action thriller depicting extraterrestrials as unwanted immigrants stranded in Johannesburg cost less than $30 million to make, a modest budget by Hollywood standards.
    District 9 is based on a short movie called Alive in Joburg, which is a six minute low budget short film made in Johannesburg. We made that about five years ago," said Jason Cope, an actor in the movie, in an interview with Reuters.
    Parallels have been drawn between the narrative and South Africa's tumultuous apartheid past and the recent xenophobic attacks that saw the country hitting international headlines.
    "The District 9 reality and the South African reality, one is a sort of frappe'd version of the other, the whole concept of the movie District 9 is to try and play with the reality, it's about turning things over and inverting things, changing the reality that we live in. So for example, just the title itself sort of symbolises that you've got District 6 which is being flipped over and it's become District 9. So, everything is about creating those stereotypes and playing with them so everything is larger than life; you've got the evil corporation, but they are more evil, you've got the evil Afrikaner but he's more evil, you've got the evil gangs but they are even more evil, so everything is a kind of hyped up version of South African reality," Cope said.
    The movie sees the forced eviction of alien creatures from a Johannesburg slum. This has been likened to the apartheid era that found black South Africans being segregated from the white community.
    South African movie-goers have been divided over the sci fi, with some lauding it for its box office success and others questioning the portrayal of South Africa.
    "I think in a way it's emphasising maybe the racial division that has been there, which is probably true but at the same time, its emphasis, I'm not sure if it is meant to help mend the gap or make it wider," said one Johannesburg resident Tenashe Mombeshora.
    Popular South African film critic, Andy Admiral called it "terrible", with its themes drawn from the country's apartheid history, as well as the more recent xenophobic violence in South Africa's townships are just glanced over and not deeply explored.
    "I think the people who are lauding it aren't reading the film properly for what it is. This is a film about, you know, the so-called white flight psychosis, it's about fear and it's about painting a picture of a country that, you know, even though it's set in the present, half the film is about apartheid and half of it is in the present, with a non-existent government, he's put the xenophobia in, which is highly misunderstood as well. It's terrible and the reasons in the readings are away from anything to do with class. It's just looked at in a very simple way and the overall message is that there is hopelessness, despair -- you know -- there's a total ignoring of what's happened here in the past, he said.
    "District 9" is currently number one at the South African box office, and has so far grossed more than 90 million U.S. dollars and topped the U.S. box office on its opening weekend before going on to world-wide success .
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