District 9

In the heart of South Africa, District 9 becomes a desolate testament to human negligence and bureaucratic apathy towards the plight of aliens. The aliens, known as 'Prawns,' due to their arthropod-like appearance, have been living in this squalid environment for thirty years. Multi-National United, a powerful corporation specializing in the acquisition and exploitation of advanced alien technology, has maintained control over District 9, ensnaring the extraterrestrial refugees in a web of oppression and neglect. District 9's grubby streets are a stark contrast to the isolated, luxurious facility where the multi-billionaire patron, Grey Bradshaw, resides. Ensconced in an opulent high-tech fortress, Professor Ian Pliny Vayne, an elderly and wheelchair-bound physicist, tirelessly works on deciphering the secrets of the alien technology. His obsessive pursuit is to unlock the universe's most closely guarded secret and claim it for humanity – a promise that is nothing short of a technological panacea for the financial woes of Multi-National United. District 9's makeshift facilities are plagued by squalor and overcrowding, leading to tensions that simmer just below the surface. Humans, who have established themselves as District 9's power brokers, make do by extracting resources from the alien environment – resources that are essentially 'free labor.' Meanwhile, a weary population of aliens, confined to this space with every semblance of hope extinguished, quietly yearn for a glimmer of something more. Their only comfort lies in small acts of empathy from the far end of the social spectrum – people like Wikus van der Merwe, an uninspired functionary working for the MNU. Wikus, caught up in a mediocre career of bureaucratic routine, sees little of the world beyond his desk job. His work, following the most by-the-numbers type of standard practice, has led to minimal social interaction and stifled intellect – until he obtains an alien containment vessel that results in him becoming affected by a debilitating viral infection administered by its toxic alien goop. Confronted by the urgent need for confinement within District 9, Wikus finds his career forced into an extreme test of resilience. MNU cuts any reasonable ties relating to his well-being, resulting in total abandonment by a business whose financial stakes outweigh human or alien interests alike. Emotionally reeling from this sudden severance, Wikus eventually learns that District 9 offers more than meets the eye when it holds a small spark of human connection amidst filth and famine. During an outburst of chaos and panic that defines MNU's priorities, Wikus is cornered, stymied and increasingly bewildered due to physiological deformities stemming from his interactions with alien contamination. His skin turns an arthropod-esque blue tint as mutations wrack his once-humorous body, which once maintained distance from reality through basic daily routines such as going home, reading and returning home to his loving family. Breaking ties between MNU, a power structure grounded in anti-human sentiment, and those inhabiting District 9 takes a terrible toll. Though MNU offers an uncompleted government-owned cure, devoid of true care or solidarity, a possible sense of family extends – forming tentative moments that ultimately signify more in content than words alone. Wikus's identity, caught between resistance and compassion, gets formed in unprecedented moments. As relationships emerge between Wikus and the people living in District 9, these people may look ugly or dissonant in appearance but Wikus comes face-to-face with his isolationism that has defined his detached thoughts. In a moment of mutual humanity in humanity's darker corners, Wikus starts to comprehend his predicament, transcending any notions of power that had been insidiously subjugated by himself and those that controlled the spaces outside of District 9. There, in their squalid conditions, stripped bare of grand solutions, those individuals who helped him rebuild and expose his sense of community at the end find common purpose with one whose sense of reality starts to break after facing an alien disease that is beyond their era's comprehension. It is an act driven by not grand ideologies, but small moments of mutual understanding.