Nigeria calls for ban on sci-fi film

Published on Saturday 19 September 2009 19:55

NIGERIA'S government is asking cinemas to stop showing a science-fiction film, District 9, claiming it denigrates the country's image.

Information minister Dora Akunyili told the BBC that she had asked the makers of the film, Sony, for an apology, arguing the film portrays Nigerians as cannibals, criminals and prostitutes.

The film, which topped the British box office charts earlier this month, also casts Malawian actor Eugene Khumbanyiwa as a gang leader with the nickname of "Obasanjo", also the surname of former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo.

The film is about alien refugees who set up home in a South African shanty town called District 9 and is a loose allegory about apartheid and recent violence by South Africans against foreigners.

Akunyili said it clearly took aim at Nigerians: "The film clearly denigrated Nigeria's image by portraying us as if we are cannibals, we are criminals. The name of our former president was clearly spelt out as the head of the criminal gang and our ladies shown like prostitutes sleeping with extraterrestrial beings."

The information minister said she had ordered the Nigerian film and video censors' board to ask all cinemas to stop showing the film and to confiscate it.

"I have also formally written to Sony Pictures Entertainment, the company that produced this film, demanding an unconditional apology for this unwarranted attack on Nigeria's image," she added. She also said she had asked them to review the film with a view to remove "all offending portions that injured our image as a nation".

Akunyili said Nigeria was now hitting back with a policy of "rebranding", after allowing the international community to define the country based on the behaviour of "a few criminals". She said that Nigeria's Nollywood film industry was also being pressed to help portray Nigeria in a better light.

But Khumbanyiwa said Nigerians in the cast did not seem worried by the portrayal of their country. He suggested that the film should not be taken too literally. "It's a story, you know," he said.