District 9

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Movie
German title District 9
Original title District 9
D9 Logo.jpg
Country of production USA , New Zealand , Canada , South Africa
original language English
Publishing year 2009
length 112 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 16
Rod
Director Neill Blomkamp
script Neill Blomkamp
Terri Tatchell
production Peter Jackson
Carolynne Cunningham
music Clinton Shorter
camera Trent Opaloch
cut Julian Clarke
occupation

District 9 is a 2009 science fiction film directed by Neill Blomkamp . The action takes place in Johannesburg , South Africa .

The premiere in Germany took place on August 22, 2009 as part of the Fantasy Film Festival . The German theatrical release was on September 10, 2009.

action

In 1982 a huge alien spaceship stopped over Johannesburg in South Africa. After a command module allegedly detached itself from the ship and fell to earth without ever being found by humans, the spaceship has remained immobile over the city since its arrival. After three months of uneventful waiting, the humans decide to cut a path into the spaceship. There they find over a million insectoid aliens in a very poor state of health. A ship commander is not found. The extraterrestrial beings are housed in a makeshift refugee camp called District 9 , which is quickly becoming a slum .

In the first decade of the 21st century, the Multinational United (MNU), a private security and military company , is responsible for monitoring the meanwhile 1.8 million insectoids. As it turns out, the MNE is less interested in the welfare of its protégés than in their weapons technology, with which they want to make immense profits. But the MNE fails, because to activate the alien weapons, they need alien DNA .

As part of a planned relocation of the aliens to District 10 , a camp about 200 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg, the MNU employee Wikus van de Merwe came into contact with an extraterrestrial liquid. At a surprise party due to his promotion to the person in charge of the resettlement operation, he collapses and is hospitalized. There it turns out that the liquid changes its DNA. His left arm mutates into that of an alien and his other human body parts and functions are also becoming more and more similar to the aliens. In the hospital, Wikus is overpowered by the MNE a short time later and transported to an underground laboratory where experiments are carried out on the aliens. The MNE realizes that Wikus is able to activate the alien weapons and also misuses him for experiments. However, shortly before he is to be vivisected by the company's scientists , Wikus manages to escape, whereupon he becomes the most wanted man in the world due to his immense worth. The MNU incites the population against Wikus through falsified propaganda information on television and targeted misinformation of its family and friends. Now there is only one place for him to hide: District 9.

There he meets the alien Christopher again. He collects a mutagenic liquid in junkyards that can be found in the technical equipment of the aliens. Christopher and his son live in a hut under which a flight module with the command module is hidden; the liquid serves as fuel. Christopher promises Wikus that his genetic changes will be reversed if the latter helps him to get back the fluid previously confiscated by Wikus from the MNE. Wikus succeeds in stealing alien weapons from a criminal gang of Nigerians. Using this superior technique, he and Christopher successfully break into the MNU laboratory and steal the liquid. It is there that Christopher is confronted for the first time with the fact that people are carrying out medical experiments on the aliens in underground laboratories, which deeply shocked him.

When they return to District 9, there is a final battle with the security forces of the MNE and the Nigerians. Wikus and Christopher are arrested by the MNE security forces. Wikus is freed by the Nigerians and brought to their gang leader, who wants to eat Wikus' arm in order to gain his powers. Christopher's son manages to activate an alien combat suit that is inside the headquarters via the mothership . With the help of this alien combat suit, Wikus tries to hold off the MNE troops and the Nigerian gang members alone to enable Christopher and his son to escape into the mother ship. The plan succeeds, and the two start their return journey to their home planet with their mother ship. Christopher promised Wikus when they left that he would return in three years to cure his mutation.

Speculations by the security forces as to what Christopher would actually do if he returned to Earth are divided. It is conjectured that he might come up with a plan to save his people or declare war on humanity. The new District 10 is now home to 2.5 million aliens and continues to grow. The last shot of the film shows Wikus, who has now completely mutated into an alien. He makes flowers from scrap and secretly lays them in front of his wife's door.

criticism

Björn Becher von Filmstarts wrote “What was“ Cloverfield ”in 2008 is“ District 9 ”this year. The only big name can be found among the producers and all set pieces have long been known. But director Neill Blomkamp convinces with an individual approach to his topics, which he underpins with political explosive. In addition, his film simply looks good and is extremely exciting. Unfortunately, in the finale, Blomkamp succumbed to the temptation to keep turning the spiral of action and thus exaggerated it a bit. Less would have been more here. But even so, "District 9" is one of the big surprises of the year, for which a visit to the cinema should definitely be planned. "

“In the form of a mockumentary ”, judged the lexicon of the international film , “the grim science fiction drama outlines a degenerate society and combines its dystopian message in a captivating way with an impressive 'look' aimed at realism”.

According to Cinema , “District 9” is a “terrific mix of effect cinema and apartheid parable. The birth of a genre classic! ”“ Filmed in the ' Cloverfield ' eyewitness style and peppered with superb computer tricks, the bizarre refugee scenario in 'District 9' seems completely realistic - even in the action finale, which is staring at alien weapons. ”

Cicero judged: “Such exciting, surprising cinema doesn't turn out so often. One in which car chases are just close enough, the twists and turns astonishing, the deaths fair, the alliances improbable, the exchanges of fire deeply satisfying, and hideous cockroaches truly touching. A cinematic triumph up to the very last, strange and sad picture. "

The Berliner Morgenpost criticized the narrative perspective, which was not consistently maintained: “Interview snippets and hand-held camera images suggest authenticity. However, Blomkamp only keeps the pseudo-documentary appearance as long as it suits him. Later - always with the greatest effect in mind - he constantly switches back and forth between Van De Merwe's perspective and a narrative position. […] In genre cinema there is a fine line between analysis and affirmation, and Neill Blomkamp slips off that more than once. "

The Swiss blog Filmsprung also criticizes the lack of realism, despite the high demands, as well as the showmanship: “But Blomkamp mainly uses the documentary approach to position the camera several times behind a person who is shortly afterwards dismembered by a shot and who is flying through the area Body parts smear the camera lens. It's still amusing once or twice, but over time it just gets boring. "

Awards

District 9 was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2010, including Best Picture . The film received further nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay , Best Editing and Best Visual Effects .

He had previously received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Screenplay that same year .

background

District 9 is based on Spy Films' 2005 short film Alive in Joburg , directed by Neill Blomkamp, Sharlto Copley , Simon Hansen and Shanon Worley.

Blomkamp said that with regard to the social situation of the aliens in the film, he was inspired, among other things, by the xenophobic riots in South Africa in 2008. Back then, residents of the slums had cracked down on illegal immigrants that were even worse off.

Peter Jackson announced that District 9 would not have been realized if he had not previously dropped out as a producer on the science fiction first person shooter film adaptation Halo .

Production costs were approximately $ 30 million. On the other hand, there was a worldwide box office of more than 204 million US dollars by February 2010, of which a little more than 115 million in the USA alone.

The title and the plot are based on events that took place in District Six , a residential district in Cape Town , during the apartheid period. Significant for this is, among other things, the use of casspirs as a means of transport by the MNE , an armored troop transport that was often used in the townships during apartheid.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Approval certificate for District 9 . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Age rating for District 9 . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Daily planner Berlin / Cinemaxx Potsdamer Platz . (PDF 316 kB) Fantasy Filmfest , archived from the original on October 7, 2009 ; accessed on August 9, 2014 .
  4. ^ District 9 - theatrical release. Sony Pictures , accessed January 19, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Björn Becher: The film starts criticism of District 9. In: Film starts . Retrieved February 10, 2012 .
  6. ^ District 9. In: Lexicon of international film . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ^ Cinema : film review
  8. ↑ Constantin Magnis : Antisocial extraterrestrials . Cicero , September 10, 2009; archived from the original on December 19, 2009 ; accessed on January 17, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  9. ^ Berliner Morgenpost : Film criticism
  10. ↑ filmsprung.ch: movie review
  11. ↑ Globe nominations 2010
  12. ↑ Spyfilms.com
  13. ^ Fritz Göttler: Hit "District 9" - apartheid against aliens. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. May 17, 2010, accessed April 7, 2019 .
  14. ↑ joystiq.com
  15. ↑ Latimes.com
  16. ↑ Boxofficemojo: District 9