District 9

For twenty years, we're told in a series of interviews and news excerpts in DISTRICT 9, an alien spaceship has hovered over Johannesberg, apparently disabled.  Its million-plus inhabitants have thus long been sequestered in District 9, a settlement of scraps and tarps, now referred to with loathing and something like fear and pity by those who don't live there.  District 9 has its own black market, illegal dealings, and shortages of any comforts.  Because of increasing hostility towards the aliens,  the government has decided to forcibly relocate them to a worse area far removed from Johannesberg; the official in charge of the relocation is brilliantly played by Sharlto Copley.  His story is one of slow transformation from obsequious toady to something akin to frightened hero, as he interacts with one alien in particular.

There is plenty of fear-caused violence, mostly from the humans, which makes the movie seem way longer than its two hours, so be prepared.  But it's an effective movie, especially because of its hand-held cameras, and as a metaphor it's wide-ranging: apartheid, internment, immigration, and prison populations, to name just a few.