"We have directed that [Nigerian cinemas] should stop public screening of the film," Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili said. "We are not happy about it because it portrays Nigeria in bad light." Additionally, Nigeria wants the reference to the movie's main gangster, Obesandjo, replaced, because it's only two letters away from the surname of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
With scenes like the one in this clip, where a local gang pulls the "cat food scam" on the hungry alien prawns, you can see where the Nigerian Ministry of Information might take umbrage. But maybe they should spend less time getting angry at people for highlighting their shortcomings and more on fixing the underlying problems that lead to the proliferation of scams and gangsterism in the first place. As the saying goes, it's funny because it's true.
Nigeria Says ‘District 9' Is Not Welcome [NYT]
PREVIOUSLY: Nigeria Demands Apology For Sony Ad Implying They're A Source Of Scams
OK, that is freaking funny. I just bought this DVD in Abuja, Nigeria for 400 Naira ($2.67), and it costs 1500 Naira ($10 to go to a movie theater -- and that's if you can find one)
I can say from experience that Nigeria is an awesome place to work. It's not exactly filled with gangsters, scammers, and DVD pirate, but they are certainly well represented.
]]>@Method of Steepest Descent: What? Of all the thoughts that have crossed my mind regarding Steve Dave, I never once thought he was fabricating things or being compensated.
@GitEmSteveDave_SomeAssemblyRequired: I love hearing about your eclectic life. And I grew up in a part of Jersey I think is near you, so your pics of the funny water always make me feel nostalgic.
]]>@JimBoSlobish:
My bad, I thought it was WW2, not 1 referenced.
I DO want an apology for South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut!
Canada demands it!
don't make me write an angry letter, America!
Yeah, you didn't really do Nigeria any favors last time you tried to defend them. They're probably better off without your help.
]]>@ncc74656m: No, I didn't go to the wrong film. It was just confusing having two movies with the same name (at least pronounced) and another one with the same numeral coming out around the same time (It's like when The Prince of Tides came out about the same time as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). I heard them talking about "Nine" on the radio and was trying to figure out how they made the animated sci-fi pic into a musical.
]]>Nigeria wants an apology for an accurate protrayal of their national pastime?
Shucks darn. I guess we need to stop refering to The Pope as being Catholic.
]]>I for one welcome our alien overlords!
]]>For a movie trying to talk about apartheid and racism, this seems very, very out of place.
I think asking the movie to be edited and such is ridiculous, but I'm NOT surprised there were complaints. Yes, there is criminal activity there, but it's not everyone and saying all Americans or Europeans are the same as their criminals is not accurate either.
]]>What about the years of being a world-renowned shitty country?
]]>And as an aside I love the tag for this post.
]]>Psych!
]]>I hate the PS3 but I will buy one today if Sony tells Nigeria to kiss their ass. That country has no control, is controlled by gangsters and is responsible for 90 percent of the internet scams going on. Hey Nigeria Kiss my Ass you low lifes.
]]>It portrayed South Africa as being full of Nigerian gangsters and cannibals. There's a difference.
]]>Everyone wants an apology these days for every perceived wrong doing towards them. Nigeria needs to grow the F up and work on that crime and cannabalism if they don't want it portrayed in the movies.
]]>Now, later on, he may have indicated that he would consume alien-human hybrid flesh, but even that isn't technically cannibalism, since the hybrid would no longer be human or of the same species (depending upon if the hybrid was a mutant or a true hemizygous fusion of genomes).
]]>@MostlyHarmless: Come on chief, let's take it easy
]]>@TCama: What about Borat and Kazhakstan?
]]>@WiglyWorm: Yea I found that amusing but I guess Sony needed to play ball.
]]>But that's the nice thing about film criticism. We can each have our preferences.
]]>The gangsters in the movie were specifically mentioned to be Nigerian. That having been said, Nigerians are apparently a pretty big force in the South African underworld. Also, District 9 wasn't just about apartheid, but also about what's going on in South Africa today (look up the term necklacing, particularly in conjunction with Zimbabwean refugees.)
]]>Dear Nigeria,
Quit your bithcing. Nobody cares.
AK9
]]>According to Blomkamp in several interviews, Nigerian organized crime syndicates are pretty common in South Africa at this point.
]]>If Nigeria really wanted to clean up their image they could start by doing something about the 419 scams and the general lawlessness that allows it to go on.
]]>There's a lot more going on in that movie than just the origination of the gang.
]]>What does that have to do with Nigeria whining about the commercial? I must have missed something.
]]>Now, as a social commentary it's an entirely different animal. But still, it was like the History Channel and American public television had a surrogate child for HBO.
]]>Didn't think so... move along... nothing to see here but butt-hurt.
]]>@tundey: I don't think Sony cares about Nigeria as much as you think they do.
]]>We are not a scam sir.
]]>@tundey: America's pretty damn awesome, actually.
]]>@tundey: So they learn from movies there? ok. Well, nobody I know has seen district 9 and thought that SA was full of aliens being held captive.
]]>@tundey: are you a nigerian scammer or something?
]]>@tundey: Are those nigerians going to the movies as much as the U.S., Canada, England.....?
]]>they just needed to be from somewhere other than SA.
]]>@wardawg: Eh, it's okay. I grew up in Milwaukee when Dahmer was going around eating people.
The USA has plenty of its own Cannibals... we don't need Canada's.
Now I feel a need to take an Alferd Packer tour of Colorado...
]]>@tundey: Hate to spoil your party but you guys can't take credit for that lunatic, he belongs to Canada.
]]>@tundey: No one said that it was indicative of the entire country, though. You lept to that conclusion. Most logical people wouldn't take the depiction of a people group within a work of fiction as representative of an entire country of people.
]]>$100 says the Nigerian "Information Minister" is a guy in an internet cafe in Nigeria with several windows open emailing people about various scams he's pulling, and he got offended watching the pirated version of District 9 and decided to do something about it.
]]>@RandomHookup: That's a while ago for me. Saw it on vacation on release day and it feels like quite a long time since then.
]]>i'm sorry that your country sucks so bad that it's portrayed pretty much everywhere as the armpit of the world. perhaps not actually being the armpit of the world would go along way towards changing everyone's perception of your nation.
just a thought.
---------
there. now stfu.
And don't edit your initial post to remove sentences you know you shouldn't have uttered.
]]>Next on Consumerist: Nigeria demands apology from email scammers
]]>@RandomHookup: You went to the wrong film? It's a simple matter in my mind of knowing what you're asking for and paying some very simple attention.
"9" was no different from calling it "Dave" if the creator of #'s 1-9 had decided to name his creations instead of number them. So it was still perfectly relevant and reasonable to name the movie as such.
]]>give me a freaking break already. It's kinda like how you can't see a Speedy Gonzales(sic) cartoon because it
show Mexicans in a negative light. It's a freaking cartoon, people, get over it!
If they want an apology for this, then I demand that they apologize to me first for the flood of spam that sucks up ridiculous amounts of Internet bandwidth. Then I want them to take action to stop it. Until these demands are met, the Nigerian government must agree to withhold any of their own demands for redress of grievances.
Keep your petty attempts at distraction from your crimes for your own people, Dora. We don't need them here.
]]>@TCama:
Well actually you can demand all the apologies you want. Whether anyone is stupid enough to make one is another thing.
]]>@GitEmSteveDave_SomeAssemblyRequired: Cannibalism?!?!?
]]>@Ratty: The US release date, according to IMDB, was August 14th, 2009.
]]>Life in Nigeria sux--I know this from a friend who was born and raised there. Yep, cannibals. Yep, gangs. Yep, a crappy place to be.
Why is it that we can't just say what something is like, without being so PC? It's better to be realistic than not.
]]>@katstermonster: So? I still want that apology.
]]>District 9 was titled after District 6
]]>@madog: ..... "Jane, you ignorant slut". Haha. My comment made me think of that for some reason.
]]>I've seen the movie and read a lot of discussions and critiques about it (and participated in some, which is about what a film MFA is good for), and actually, Blomkamp uses a lot of racial / cultural attitudes that currently exist, as well as the ones invented to deal with the aliens. The thoughts about that fall into two camps: either that Blomkamp is mindlessly parroting his local cultural attitudes, or that Blomkamp and the film are smart enough to be using existing attitudes to play off of each other and with the themes of the film. Personally, I run with the latter, because it was a very well-crafted movie.
That said, the portrayal of the Nigerians is indeed less than flattering and the film does give enough cause to worry about the racial angle. But the film wants you to be worried about that, was the impression I got, rather than just glossing over everything.
]]>Dear Nigeria,
Nobody cares. Italy isn't bitching about Mobsters portrayed in some of the best movies ever (maybe they did, but nobody cares). I didn't complain when Jackass came out, so shut your stupid mouths.
@RandomHookup: Consider District 9 came out a while back, probably not many.
]]>@DarkKnightShyamalan: It is unfortunate that Nigeria COMPLETELY missed the point of this movie. It wasn't about the evil Nigerians. It was about the terrible way that South Africa treats and segregates its immigrants using aliens as a metaphor.
While SOME of the bad guys in the movie were Nigerians, I don't think their portrayal can do any worse for the reputation of Nigeria than the ousted Prince of Nigeria who will gladly pay you $200k to get back his $13 million.
]]>Yeah, no. True or not, you don't get to demand apologies, let alone demand that a studio stop showing a movie, if your country is depicted in a bad light.
]]>What Nigeria seems to be missing is that the movie was written and directed by a man from South Africa - so perhaps their anger shouldn't be directed at Sony, but at the person who should - for all intents and purposes - know a good deal about Nigeria and Africa in general.
I haven't seen District 9 (though I want to), but I haven't read anything to suggest that the movie was offensive to anyone except insectoid alien beings.
]]>What's with all the frigging "9" movies, Hollywood? I'm confused enough with "Nine" and "9" -- an animated musical about the post-apocalyptic world -- and now you add this one? Let's mash all the plots together and see what they get.
How many people went to the wrong film?
]]>Looks like Sony pulled the commercial. Now he says, "Don't believe everything you read on the internet. That's how World War 2 started." Looks like Sony caved in on that front. But, obviously, the film will never be re-edited and/or removed from screens.
]]>The movie portrays Nigeria in a bad light? More like NIGERIA portrays Nigeria in a bad light!
]]>in place of an appology can we wire $50,000 via Western Union with homes of getting a $13,000,000 appology bonus back from a long lost uncle who was head of the finance committe in nigeria?
]]>