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Apartheid In The Film 'District 9'

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District 9 connects to apartheid in many different ways from physical, mental and social settings to law enforcement. Within the movie you can see direct connections between how the white people treat the aliens (prawns) and how white people treat black people in South Africa. The director of District 9 Neill Blomkamp grew up in the time of apartheid, he had first hand experience with apartheid and used the movie to channel his experience to shed light on the topic.
“It was completely barbaric what happened and that was the same day we started rolling cameras on a film that was about the residents of Joburg wanting a foreign race out. So all of a sudden I am making a film which within South Africa has this massive political point of view but really that isn 't what we set out to do. So I hope that the residents of Joburg don 't take it the wrong way.” said Blomkamp. This quote showcases Blomkamp’s love/hate relationships with his hometown Johannesburg and how they treat “foreigners”. In this quote Blomkamp states how …show more content…

Throughout the movie we can see many connections to apartheid. Such as the ¨slums¨ where the aliens are confined to and they cannot leave the perimeter of the given area. This relates to how in South Africa blacks were restricted to certain areas called ḧomelands¨ or districts. This further emphasizes the integration of apartheid within the movie ¨District 9¨. During apartheid South Africa used their military forces to administer their laws against blacks. At times they would use lethal force to ensure they maintain power over the blacks and to instill fear. The same could be said for District 9, where a military company call MNU would go into the district with armoured vehicles and heavy weaponry to force the laws and instill fear on the aliens. If they didn’t comply to the laws they would be shot or taken in for testing at the MNU headquarters. A common theme throughout history is to use force to administer laws regarding segregation and/or

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