12 Brilliant Movies That Completely Lied What They Were About

4. District 9

The Lie: This fiendishly imaginative sci-fi actioner is a not-so-subtle allegory for South Africa's Apartheid, with the aliens representing black people, who of course had their rights restricted for the sake of whites.

The Reality: Close, but no cigar. Writer-director Neill Blomkamp himself has confirmed that the film is actually about modern South Africa, with the aliens in fact representing Zimbabwean immigrants. He said, "I was asking black South Africans about black Nigerians and Zimbabweans. That's actually where the idea came from was there are aliens living in South Africa, I asked 'What do you feel about Zimbabwean Africans living here?' And those answers - they weren't actors, those are real answers."

In fairness, neither Blomkamp nor the movie ever explicitly said that the film was a parallel to Apartheid, and much of the blame is on audiences for assuming. Perhaps as a South African filmmaker, though, Blomkamp didn't quite realise that most of the world would defer to Apartheid rather than the more current pressing issue with illegal immigration in the country. It's hard to imagine that Blomkamp went the entire course of the production, especially with Peter Jackson producing, without someone telling him that the message might come across mixed to audiences at large.