Be afraid. Be very afraid. District 9 is so graphic, visceral and disturbing you’ll have a hard time sitting through it. Not because it’s poorly made or ridiculously absurd, but because it is so very real and compelling. It’s like no other film ever made.

“Presented” and produced by Peter Jackson, he once again proves that he is one of the most original and gifted filmmakers of our time. He wisely used first time feature director Neill Blomkamp and a cast of virtually unknown South Africans so that the stars and style would not distract from the story. And what a story it is! While it’s pure science fiction, it seems so real and possible that it could well be happening right under our noses today. It seems that a giant alien space craft has been silently hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa. When it first arrived, no efforts were made by the aliens inside to contact earth residents, so crews were sent up to open the craft, where they found almost a million malnourished aliens living inside. The aliens, derisively called “prawns” because of their vertical crustacean-looking appearance, are shuttled down to earth and settled into a ghetto-like area known as District 9. Because of local outcry, authorities decide it’s time to relocate their rundown “community” to an area much farther from the city, and a hapless bureaucrat named Wikus Van De Merwe (Shalrlto Copley in his first ever big budget lead) is appointed to head up the relocation. Once inside the alien ghetto, however, discoveries are made and accidents happen that super-charge alien/human relations and threaten both populations.

The entire film is shot as if it’s a compelling documentary, with footage from interviews, security cameras and handheld digitals telling most of the story. Sympathies are smoothly shifted as the relentless action pounds across the screen. The special effects are flawless, with the young ones being ugly and foreign, rather than gratuitously cute. This film is as hard, sharp and grittily abrasive as they come, which is the only way to tell this particular story. You might not really like the film, but there will be no doubt in your mind that you have just experienced a major cinematic event.

Rated  PG-13

Lisa Johnson Mandell