District 9: A landmark in African film?

Think ‘blockbuster’ and African film doesn’t immediately come to mind. Yet the sci-fi movie District 9, directed in ‘mockumentary’ style by South African Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter ‘Lord of the Rings’ Jackson, has almost changed all that. On its release in August 2009 it topped box office rankings in the US and UK and has received overwhelmingly positive reviews. So is this the face of African film-making in the 21^st century? Is it even an ‘African’ film? Or are its affinities more with the ‘alien invader’ film genre, dubiously set in a new realm of horror, namely Africa?

Cynics may note that the writers, director, producer and billed stars are all white; self-confessed ‘sci-fi nerd’ Blomkamp left South Africa for Canada in 1997. The central character, Wikus, is an Afrikaner bureaucrat. No doubt the queues at the box offices comprised other sci-fi nerds, not devotees of Africa and African film. Nevertheless, the heart of the film is surely African, informed by South Africa’s apartheid history at the same time as it examines an unstable present and uncertain future.

The plot, in a nutshell, deals with a spaceship of aliens marooned above Johannesburg. Interned and segregated in District 9, soon a decaying slum, the aliens, or ‘prawns’, are then forcibly relocated to District 10, physical distance mirroring other physical distance and amplifying the core themes of historical racism and segregation and contemporary xenophobia, as unwelcomed refugees flock into South Africa from Zimbabwe and elsewhere. 

Perhaps the question ‘how African is it?’ is misplaced and it is the fusion itself that is notable. This has not escaped notice. Some critics in the Guardian have praised the film at the same time as lamenting its ‘Hollywoodisation’: the special effects, the action thriller format, stereotypical shoot-outs. (Apparently the director himself has described it as a South African Hollywood film). However, any film that deals with contemporary African realities must deal with an Africa that does not exist in an African vacuum. Time-honoured themes like apartheid and colonialism are well worn and African artists today, in whatever medium, do not want to be constrained by traditional themes and forms, or even political correctness.

District 9 clearly has its PC heart largely in the right place, with its accompanying critique of multinational corporations and privatised military outfits. But it has caused some political upsets. In particular, Nigerians were upset by the portrayal of Nigerian gangs and ganglords. One New York critic described the movie as ‘the sloppiest and dopiest pop cinema’, and ‘sheer exploitation’ that perpetuates racial stereotypes with ‘decayed compassion’.

 ”In particular, Nigerians were upset by the portrayal of  Nigerian gangs and ganglords”

 

Some Sowetans, in Chiawelo where the movie was filmed, aren’t happy either. Though filming provided opportunities for many, others are only too aware of the irony that they must continue to live in the very real decay of an African township, unable to afford the price of a cinema ticket to see the results. Meanwhile, the box office takings roll in…

Cinema-goers will make up their own minds, but there is no doubt that District 9 breaks a bunch of barriers. There can be no doubt that contemporary consumers of African arts and media don’t just want the old themes and approaches. Whether District 9 has accomplished this quantum leap is clearly debatable. What it does do is open the mind to contemplating the future of African film. What other fusions might emerge, perhaps more successfully, in the future? Will the debates fuel innovation in African film? Might funding and support (in short supply) increase?

Whatever, District 9 proves once again the old aphorism, coined by Pliny the Elder two thousand years ago:  ‘Ex Africa semper aliquid novi’ (there is always something new out of Africa).