Neill Blomkamp's District 9 (based on the 2005 short Alive in Joburg) is one of the more legitimate cinematic first contact films to have come along in a long time. It's a gripping, fast-paced story that plays to all our expectations of what real human-alien interaction might look like, while sidestepping many of the clichés that have relegated the genre to "fun but by no means serious" status among popular films.

In 1982, an extraterrestrial mothership comes to rest above Johannesburg, South Africa - and does absolutely nothing. No invasion force decimating New York City or the White House, no impassioned comments by the President of the United States, no heavily-decorated generals recommending military strikes, no pleas by scientists to understand the aliens inside - none of that. The idea that humanity's first contact with an alien species will happen in a place no one expects, and in a way no one expects, starts giving this movie credibility from the get-go. Independence Day, this is not.

The mothership contains over a million aliens, bipedal crustacean-like humanoids, to whom the South African government provides refuge and sanctuary in District 9. The novelty soon wears off, and the aliens come to be regarded with disgust, suspicion and hostility by their human neighbors. Crime and squalor run rampant in District 9 as the world gets used to, and subsequently ignores the plight of the aliens. With South African citizens unhappy about the violence emanating from District 9, the South African government agrees to move the aliens (now almost two million in number) out to District 10, a new camp. To do this, Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a harmless bureaucrat, is recruited to organize the transfer. Then everything goes wrong.

District 9's setting of Johannesburg, South Africa introduces many new elements to what might have otherwise been a standard alien movie. The country's own tortured history with racial segregation is never referred to directly, but the human cast of black and white South Africans (and gun-running Nigerians) provide a backdrop that, while not unique to South Africa, allows a new dimension of storytelling that might not have worked well in a Hollywood-esque New York. Considering the parallels between the events of the story and the real life District Six, this was far more than just a science fiction movie for many South Africans.

(contd.)