district 9

con Sharlto Copley, Mandla Gaduka

30/lode

It happens these days that crossover culture frequently turns into cleverly educated projects, ready to be fed to a massive audience of amateurs and nerdy film-cultured kids, but ultimately devoid of substance and stay confined to a sort of virtuoso solipsism where packaging means more than subject or any idea of directing.

Neill Blomkamp, produced by hypertechnological Mogul Peter Jackson, has much to say instead. What he manages to put up is a "revival" of Apartheid pictured in a hyper-realistically fictional key. This is so brave just one year away from the Football World Cup in South Africa. The opposite of what is billed as its most politically-correct counterpoint so far (Invictus).

Skillfully made for around $27 million -a real steal at today's prices- this frenetic debut by Blomkamp grabs you by the eyeballs from the very first dirty frame.

A rough documentary style that takes no prisoners, may leave viewers stumbling OUT of theatres, struck dumb with shock. It happens, but, still, INSIDE the theatre... 

Aliens have finally made their first contact with Poor Mother Earth while we were waiting for the hostile attack or giant advances in technology: neither came...

Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa’s District 9 as the world’s nations argued over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when a human field operative, Wikus van der Merwe, contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable – he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.

What a smart start!

And what surprises most is that all the expected quotations don't feed one's skepticism - Alien(s )/ Blade Runner / Predator / The Fly / E.T. - are at the same time present and absent, as they don't disturb at all the critic and the viewer, because the unexpected mix that has recomposed' em makes you forget the starting point.

Filmed almost entirely on a giant South African rubbish dump, District 9 spins human trash into extraterrestrial gold. Charging through a three-day story arc with end-of-the-world intensity, its characters dare us to quibble over their unpronounceable names and unintelligible accents.

But then as their frequently-subtitled exchanges prove, words aren't really the point.

When it's human against alien, we rely on our eyes much more than our ears.

 As we learn from a brilliantly concise intro involving faux newsreels and direct-to-camera interviews with government drones or corporate mouthpieces, an alien spaceship stalled above Johannesburg 20 years earlier, its million passengers helpless and starving. Labeled "prawns" due to their love of scavenging and their disgusting-to-humans physical appearance - a hybrid of the monster from Predator and Pirates of the Caribbean's squid - the aliens were corralled into an area known as District 9.

Now, however, the District has devolved into a stinking, violent ghetto, and the multinational entity in charge of it has decided to relocate the refuse-happy residents. Heading up the dangerous task of evictions is Wikus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a dedicated bureaucrat considered expendable by his loathsome boss-cum-father-in-law.

One alien explains. "We mean you no harm. We just want to go home."

Wikus is unafraid of the prawns and not above threatening the removal of their insectoid offspring should they refuse to relocate. The early scenes, which follow Wikus and a harried TV news crew as they trudge from one hovel to another brandishing eviction notices, have a nerve-jangling tension spiked with dark humor.

Wikus is employed by Multi-National United, a company tasked with researching the aliens' weapon systems.

Seamlessly blending the natural and the unnatural, Blomkamp layers visual gags with alien conversations that sound like extreme intestinal distress while advancing a plot rife with references to E.T. and The Fly.

The wonder is that despite its obvious roots, as we have already stated, District 9 feels staggeringly original. Channeling Cloverfield's shooting style and Verhoeven's energy and anti-corporate sensibility, the movie rarely holds still. And while this restlessness has predictable consequences for character development, it's difficult to care. As corporate bigwigs lust after alien technology and the aliens lust after cat food, District 9 gradually narrows its focus and widens its ambitions. The final struggle between alien and human will be played out not on the ground but in Wikus' bloodstream, a war zone less visible but infinitely more consequential.

We look forward to another effort from extraordinary Blomkamp, hoping no mysterious saga will come across his way...

15:08:2009