Wikus van der Merwe wears a knit vest over a shirt and tie. An identity card hangs from a clip and he’s in his office cubicle giving an awkward interview.  He’s just been appointed head of the new operation to serve eviction notices to the illegal aliens living in District 9, a shantytown just outside Johannesburg. He’s a slightly bumbling nerdish type, soft and uncomfortable with the camera, basically what’d you’d call unassuming. Yet what’s strange is that the aliens, or “prawns”, as the locals call them, are real aliens. Like from another planet.

District 9 is produced by Peter Jackson and helmed by Neill Blomkamp, starring Sharlto Copley in the lead role. It’s a film that manages to mash multiple genres, political thriller, race relations, sci fi action and mockumentary into one absolutely silly yet completely workable idea. It’s funny and takes things out of context so you feel its ok to laugh at it all. The film is shot handheld, war documentary style but there’s also scenes of fake interviews spliced together with archival footage of the real world.

You get introduced to Wikus in bits and bobs. For the first half hour, you’re not really sure what’s going to happen. You’re even quizzical at the mention of the aliens and the mothership hovering over Johannesburg. It sounds absurdist and surreal. Cos the aliens haven’t come to invade. They’ve somehow lost control of their craft and were discovered severly malnourished within. The South African government builds a slum to house them. It’s not running like a typical sci-fi, more like a satirical racial thriller instead with aliens and humans standing in for some pseudo apartheid. Mix in alien weapons and a Nigerian warlord controlling the slum for good measure and heighten the intrigue.

The action starts going for real when Wikus gets exposed to an alien substance, extracted over 20 years by Christopher Johnson, the ridiculously named alien. Wikus starts vomiting violently and appears to be bleeding black. Soon, we learn he’s turning into an alien, a prawn. He’s now the only person in the world who can use the powerful alien weaponry, which starts to entice human greed when he gets discovered. From there he goes from medical experiment to fugitive and finally, hero.

It’s such a wonderful little film that lives right on the edge of a surrealist plot. The mockumentary style really makes it so strange yet compelling. Also, there’s the awesome South African accent that gives the film a certain newness. Definitely a must watch and I hope they make a sequel. Another interesting thing is that the film is based on a short by Blomkamp and only came into being after the Halo movie was scrapped. Which, to me, was a blessing in disguise.