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Author: Desertopa

Jan 21st 2013 at 6:54:02 AM

{{District9}} is certainly inspired by and evocative of apartheid, but I'm not sure it's fair to call it an allegory for apartheid. The plot hinges on things that don't appear to have correspondences in the apartheid metaphor, and in general, I'd say that if the real event or concept appears or is referenced directly in a work, the work probably isn't an allegory for that thing. For instance, if a film takes place in South Africa, involves the strict legal separation of populations, with one being a subordinate underclass, and people point out in-movie that this is similar to apartheid, the movie isn't an allegory for apartheid. The things people allegorize generally aren't self referential.

That doesn't mean District 9 ''isn't'' allegorical though. I think it's meant more as an allegory for ''current'' race relations in South Africa (which ''are'' referential of apartheid, since people will look around and say "the laws are different and the regime is different, but have things really changed?")

I've never seen {{Monsters2010}}, so I can't comment on that one.