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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:What languages do aliens speak? Multilingual 'Otherness' of diasporic dystopia in 'District 9'
Author:Mizoguchi, Akiko
Year:2016
Periodical:Journal of African Cinemas (ISSN 1754-923X)
Volume:8
Issue:2
Pages:169-179
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:films
filmmakers
world view
multilingualism
diasporas
About person:Neill Blomkamp (1979-)ISNI
External link:http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jac/2016/00000008/00000002/art00003
Abstract:'District 9' (Blomkamp, 2009), a South African science-fiction film, is noted for its dystopian vision. It is mostly set in a dilapidated township of Johannesburg called District 9, where 'abject' refugee aliens and Nigerian gangs reside. Moreover, the district in the end becomes a chaotic battlefield where the South African mercenaries hired by neo-liberal Multi-National United and the Nigerians mercilessly hunt Wikus van de Merwe, an MNU employee, whose mutating body holds a key to operating alien weaponry. These temporary dwellers of District 9 are informed by many levels of displacement and marginalization and are presented as the 'Other' to the residents of the 'human' world and this 'Other' worldliness is intensified by the way in which the director forges the 'South African' multilingual condition in the film. This article discusses the colonial and segregationist world-view on the post-apartheid South Africa in the representation of the 'Other' multilingual and diasporic landscape. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]
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