MORE than 20 years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. They were refugees from their home world and were set up in a makeshift, slum-like camp in South Africa as the world s nations argued over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien s

MORE than 20 years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. They were refugees from their home world and were set up in a makeshift, slum-like camp in South Africa as the world's nations argued over what to do with them.

Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare. MNU will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' powerful weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA.

The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when MNU begins evicting the non-humans. One of the field operatives, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts an alien virus that begins changing his DNA.

Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable - he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology.

Ostracised and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson produces Neill Blomkamp's movie debut, DISTRICT 9 (15).

Blomkamp blurs the lines between filmmaking styles.

He says: "Essentially, the film bounces from our story, which is obviously fictional, to a sort of ultra-real mode."

Dramatic scenes, mockumentary footage, real news video obtained from the South African Broadcasting Corporation - "it's all part of the same story".