Apartheid. Xenophobia. Illegal aliens. Segregation. Conflict. Rights violations. Words that could easily be used to describe our country’s most recent past, however what they’re referring to is a film that arguably could be one of the biggest in South African cinematic history, District 9.

Produced by Peter Jackson, the man behind everyone’s favourite dwarf and elf adventure, the Lord of the Rings, and directed by South African Neill Blomkamp, D9 (as the film has become know) sees a race of actual aliens land in the rainbow nation - and decide to stay. Rifting off the events of last year that saw a series of xenophobic attacks take place back home, the local population has grown fed up of the intergalactic refugees who are segregated from the humans (apartheid?) and treated with distain.

Filmed in, and around Soweto, and featuring one of the biggest viral campaigns since Cloverfield and the Blair Witch Project, the film is based on Blomkamp’s 2005 science fiction short film ‘Alive in Joburg’. Wilkus, a Multi-National United (MNU) agent, is a central character in D9 who polices the unwelcome visitors. Played by Sharto Copley, an unknown South African producer and actor, Wilkus is hunted by his own people after being exposed to the aliens’ biotechnology. With MNU needing his DNA to help unlock the aliens’ superior weapons capabilities, he has no option but to seek help from the very beings that he used to look down on.

While it might never win an Oscar, D9 is a milestone in South African cinema, a summer blockbuster that is pure South African at heart but very Hollywood in it’s scope. Dare you enter the district on August 14th?