District-9, A review
District-9, A review of the feature film directed by Neill Bloomkamp
If one can survive or tolerate the excesses of the Sci-Fi genre, the gore, the mucus and outlandish imagery (and as an ardent sci-fi fan, I actually enjoyed, I must admit), one can see the brutalities we perpetuate against each other in the name of differences of various kinds.
The film, disturbingly shot in a documentary mode of narration, is presented in real time, through the eyes of the hero, Wikus Van De Merwe, played by Sharlto Copely. The story unfolds in, surprise, surprise, the starkly strange landscape of Johannesburg. But the film can be read in more subtle ways than black and white, no pun intended. The protagonist, who comes from a very privileged background with a father-in-law who is highly placed in the government, walks into the ghetto of aliens to serve them eviction notices. In a predictable turn of events, the hero gets “stung” and slowly begins to metamorphose, in much the same way as Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, into an alien. First it begins with his hand and then the rest of the body. We find him battle his transforming identity from one side of the fence to the other side of the fence in more than literal ways. In the process of finding a way to “cure” himself, he begins to understand the “other” perspective. The rest of the film is about how empathy and, as Richard Sennett put it, purified identity are at odds in any given situation of human conflict. One the one hand we want to ascertain our identity and difference. On the other hand we want to feel for the other.
Wikus teams up with an alien, Christopher, both of whom are distanced from their better halves in different ways. Thus, we find some kind of mirroring of conditions and alignment of existential needs that enable a relationship to grow. Both of them feel the longing to “go home.” Both have to withstand attacks on their identity and indeed their existence. Both have to contend with the distance from the sophistication of advanced capabilities in their earlier lives and the oppressed conditions in the present.
The film is difficult to watch, but the realities depicted in the film are much more difficult to understand. We watch the film in the warmth and security of our homes, whereas there are millions of “aliens” who are relegated to slums, refugee camps and vagabond nomadic lives. But there are also millions of legal aliens who live in exile from their homelands by choice and constantly struggle to define their identity and take pride in their homeland’s sophisticated past.
As an immigrant, I have been officially termed a “resident alien.” So, it does not take much to get inside the disgusting skin and exoskeleton of the subjugated aliens in the film. Anyone who experienced the demeaning treatment by an immigration officer or others in the adapted land knows instantaneously how alienated the aliens in District-9 feel.
The film operates successfully at many levels. It is a bona fide science fiction on its way to become a cult classic. It is a reflection of the brutal realities all over the world. It is a narrative about the existential struggles of all the humans who are distanced from their “homes” no matter where.
-Mahesh Senagala
