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District 9 Belonging

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District 9 Belonging
District 9

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District 9 is a film that is set in Johannesburg, South Africa in the year of 2010. Twenty eight years ago, an alien species arrived over Johannesburg. The humans were prepared to be invaded or for some great leap in technology to come with the aliens presence, but it turned out the aliens were actually refugees, the remaining population of a species who no longer had a planet to live on. They spent their time on earth residing in a messy refugee camp while Earth’s governments argued on how to deal with them. Over those twenty eight years, patience with the aliens grew thin which sparked a great tension between both the humans and aliens. This tension
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This discrimination is used as a metaphor for creating a scenario mirroring all of the racial discrimination that already occurs on earth. Due to the film being set in South Africa, there is a clear resemblance back to when the black Africans were discriminated against for a number of years. This setting is perfect for displaying the discrimination to this new alien species in comparison with the past discrimination as previously mentioned.

The setting and different environments used in the film help to create a clearer understanding of how belonging is portrayed. The aliens are kept in a filthy refugee camp with shanty houses, surrounded the by the city of Johannesburg in living conditions not much different from that in which a homeless person would live in. This displays the aliens' very low social class on earth and gives the viewers an insight on what the aliens are seen as by humans. This also accurately reflects the conditions and how people are treated in refugee camps in the real

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