District 9 follows many of the familiar conventions of cinematic science fiction: aliens, giant spaceships, futuristic weaponry, and government conspiracy. The South African setting, though, is something really new.
Director Neill Blomkamp told the New York Times that he is unsure of how certain parts of the film will go over in America, given the unfamiliarity of this context. One part is particularly concerned about involves a chase scene where a group of Nigerian gangsters track down a corporate bureaucrat whose infected DNA is transforming him into an alien. They want to cut off and eat his alien parts. For a South African audience, Blomkamp is confident that the scene would come off almost like a segment from the evening news, but he wonders whether it might leave an American audience "feeling either confused or insulted."
Ultimately, he's not too worried, given all of the positive buzz the movie has gotten from early screenings. Besides, he suggests, this is just a taste of things to come:
The rest of the world has always been open to films from all over the place. The Americans have to, in the 21st century, start dealing with the fact that they may be watching popcorn films not from America.
Soon, we'll all be making films for the Chinese.
At least as far as District 9 goes, though, it may yet turn out that such concerns are wholly misplaced. It is, after all, a sci-fi flick about aliens. The more alien, the better, right? So, is it entirely possible that, even for American audiences, the exotic setting will turn out to be a feature, not a bug?