The film District 9 is an extra-terrestrial take on the political climate in South Africa. The government treated the African people there as sub-human. The same is done in the film, except this time it's aliens who have been stranded on planet Earth and confined to "district 9".
There is an obvious meaning behind this science fiction, but I think there is also a personal meaning in this story. Wikus Van De Merwe, was one of the lead agents for the government agency that was committing horrible things against the alien, Prawn. He commanded his men to torch their children, and kick the Prawn from their home, without much sympathy or compassion for them. Wikus treated them like animals.
Through a series of events Wikus becomes infected by the Prawn and starts changing into one of them. He is in a panic. He has also found himself being hunted by the very agency he served.
Wikus is forced to befriend Christopher and his young son, some of the Prawns he had wronged earlier in the film. Wikus' character arc comes full circle when he begins to relate with Christopher and his son, on a personal level. Wikus realizes that they are not animals and deserve respect. He discovers that Christopher is very intelligent and is trying to repair the Prawn's ship and go home.
We can learn a lot from Wikus and Christopher's relationship. They may seem different in terms of culture, language, and species, but ultimately they were not different. Every individual knows someone or a group of people we don't understand. It can cause us to fear or look down on a person, instead of take an opportunity to learn about a person and build a friendship.
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