District 9 Analysis

The image on the left is of a South African police officer beating a black man during the Apartheid era. The image to the right is of Koobus Venter pushing a prawn to its knees In District 9. Both these images correlate each other as they both show the theme of police brutality during the Era. District 9 is based off of the facts of the Apartheid Era. And during the Apartheid era Black people were beaten for no reason, and the police has the mentality of ‘shoot first, ask questions later’. This helps put the District 9 Image into context as in the film one sees Koobus Venter being told to shoot first and ask questions later, and in this particular scene above, one also sees how Koobus Venter is threatening, beating and eventually killing the
The image on the left is a whites only bench that was used during the Apartheid Era, whilst the image on the right is a Humans only bench used during the film of District 9. These images link with each other as they both share a common theme of xenophobia. Both these images are singling out and excluding the less dominant race/species. Both these benches are of a better quality than the benches provided for the oppressed to show how poorly the oppressed were treated and what the whites or the humans thought of them for the people to think they could not use the same amenities to prevent any form of illness or disease that may be transferred from the non-whites to the whites or from the prawns to the humans. The anti prawn symbol shown in the image on the right is a recurring symbol of xenophobia throughout the film to show the extent in which these creatures are excluded and unwanted and how mistreated they were to not be able to have the same luxuries and freedoms as the humans were
Both these images represent the theme of ‘the other’ shown throughout both the Apartheid Era and throughout District 9. The whole idea of ‘the other’ is to separate the dominant race/species from the oppressed. The prawns throughout the film link with the non-whites of the Apartheid South Africa as they were both treated poorly with similar conditions and both referred to as ‘the other’, due to being a different colour of skin or a different species without the chance of being understood or without the chance of being able to stand up for themselves. Being referred to as ‘the other’ sets the idea that one does not belong and should not be there, and have less of a right than the rest meaning that the oppressor has the right and ability to torture and mistreat ‘the other’.The image on the left is an image of a township in South Africa during the Apartheid Era. To the right of that image is an aerial view image of a township in South Africa during the film of District 9. Both these images share the common theme of what South Africa looked like during the respected time frame. In the Apartheid image on the left, there are black people sitting in front of their shacks in their