The ORM and Django

If you're not using the ORM, why are you using Django at all? It is kind of the question. Some people want to hide the data access logic and have separate representations of business objects and business logic. There are design patterns for that. I think some people even put together examples of how to do a very minimal Django. Putting service layers in front of the ORM will always end up reinventing the ORM or introducing a lot of complexity.