District 9 is set in an alternate 2010 where it has been 20 years since a derelict alien spacecraft has come to rest above the South African city of Johannesburg. The impoverished, "worker class" aliens have wound up occupying the slums directly below their ship which has been rendered inoperable, assumedly by the detachment of a command module of some kind. While the aliens, or "prawns" as they are unaffectionately known, are afforded the same human rights as their terrestrial counterparts, they essentially live like animals and are regarded as such by the surrounding populace. The prawns haven't done themselves any favours by scavenging (see "stealing") anything that isn't nailed down and exhibiting extremely disruptive and often destructive behaviour. Their inability to integrate has resulted in them being separated by chain link and razor wire, turning the slums of Johannesburg into an intergalactic refugee camp dubbed District 9.
