There's not much I can add as comment to this article from The Guardian, so I'm going to post it whole and let anyone who comes by reflect on the ironies...
"RATS crawl over piles of garbage. Three donkeys peer over a fence improvised from rusted mattress springs. A small boy rides inside a black rubbish bin his father hopes will pass as a baby buggy.
Strewn with beer bottles, broken glass and giant cactuses, this blasted landscape is the stuff of post-apocalyptic science fiction. So perhaps it is no surprise that Chiawelo, a squatter camp in Soweto, is the backdrop to the latest hit sci-fi film. District 9 is the story of aliens stranded in an impoverished South African township. As their spaceship hovers above Johannesburg, the aliens, whose appearance earns them the unflattering nickname ''prawns'', live in squalid shacks behind barbed wire and barter with gangsters to satisfy their addiction to cat food.
The $US30 million ($A36 million) film, produced by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, was No. 1 at the US box office in its first weekend and has grossed more than $90 million so far. It has also given the people of Chiawelo an unlikely place in film history. The community, which lacks electricity and running water, gazed in wonder at the arrival of film crew and set-builders.
The trailers are now gone and there are mixed feelings about the experience. Some residents were grateful for the money they received as extras. They hope the film will raise awareness of their plight and force the South African Government to help them.
Others, such as Sydney Mofokeng, 32, say they feel exploited. Mr Mofokeng, a traditional healer, lives in a one-room shack amid heaps of shoes, toilet pipes and shredded mattresses. He is unlikely to ever see the film.
Transport to the nearest cinema and the price of admission are beyond the reach of those forced to forage for firewood to keep warm. ''I'd like to see it, but I can't go without money,'' Mr Mofokeng said.
Like the aliens in District 9, the people in Chiawelo are set for relocation whether they like it or not. Some do not. Matilda Isaacs, 54, opposes plans to transfer her to government housing 10 kilometres away. ''We don't want to move,'' she said. ''We'd like to stay here, we are happy here. Rich men come and make films here.''
Johannes Maleleka, 39, was less certain. ''We are suffering,'' he said. ''We have nothing, not enough money to eat. I sleep on the street and it's very cold in winter. I would like a house.'' France Mokoene, 24, added: ''There are six of us in a shack. It's difficult because we sleep in a small room and don't have much privacy. I spend my days there or playing on the soccer field.''
Across the street are the brick houses and shops of modern Soweto, the township once synonymous with the privations of apartheid.
Sylvia Khoza, holding her one-year-old daughter, Unathi, said the film had opened new doors. ''Ninety per cent of people here worked on it. Now some of them are working as actors. The film helped people here to realise their talent.''
Sydney Mofokeng, however, is not so convinced. ''We are the people,'' he said, ''And we are still here.'' "
