In: District 9: Johannesburg as Nostalgic Dystopia
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Abstract
In concluding this book I review the cache that these excavations have yielded: District 9 is clearly a film that has made more of a mark on the surrounding visual landscape than has been acknowledged. It is notable for many things, but its portrayal of Johannesburg is one of its most important contributions to cinema and visual culture. Its vision of the city has been shown in this book to have reverberated in other mediums and genres: photography and documentary film among others. Along with an ironically nostalgic portrayal of the city, Blomkamp employs analogue nostalgia to great effect. This is further emphasised in how the city itself appears in the film as an untransformed post-industrial landscape, which weaves sublime effects. This contradictory state of limbo is characteristic of nostalgic dystopia, where the city hovers between apartheid and democracy, and the potential for achieving transformation beckons on the horizon.