LIFE

Sci-fi socialism

Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/09/2013

» With his previous hit District 9 and now Elysium, South African director Neill Blomkamp has cornered a specific sub-genre: the sci-fi socialist action flick. In the Jo'berg-set debut from 2009, the crustacean-like aliens scavenge garbage piles and live in a filthy shantytown, segregated from the human population. District 9 is an alien film, with spaceships and laser guns, but it's actually a clever allegory about class and institutional discrimination.