Neptune Frost, dir. Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, USA / Rwanda 2021, 105 min., Kinyarwanda / French with English subtitles
A vast Rwandan coltan mine and Burundian village turned techno scrapheap hacker encampment sets the scene for this non-conforming musical adventure.
An electrifying connection between intersex runaway Neptune (Elvis Ngabo and Cheryl Isheja) and coltan miner Matalusa (Kaya Free) creates a virtual offspring with the potential to ignite a revolution. The soundtrack, composed by Williams, is our emotional and spiritual guide through overlapping analogue and digital universes, embracing his defiantly experimental, activist and intersectional position.
Blending afrofuturistic and glitch aesthetics, the creative team’s dynamic vision includes art direction from polymath Cedric Mizero (fashion designer, artist, photographer), producer backing from actor Ezra Miller (The Flash), and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton and In the Heights.
Made with an entirely Rwandan and Burundian cast and crew, Neptune Frost presents an intoxicatingly original way to explore economic inequality specific to this mining region of Africa, and the role of technology as both oppressor and liberator.
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