From District Six to District 9: Apartheid, Spectacle and the Real

This Film as Text looks at District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009). By focusing on humanity's xenophobic treatment of aliens in contemporary Johannesburg, District 9 also functions as a powerful allegory for the very real traumas that faced South Africa, the film's country of production, during and after apartheid, writes Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.