''Neptune Frost'' is a 2021

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

romantic

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

co-directed by

Saul Williams Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent film ''Slam ( ...

and

Anisia Uzeyman Anisia Uzeyman (born Anisziya Uwizeyimana, February 1975) is a Rwandan actress and playwright. She is most noted as codirector with Saul Williams of the 2021 film '' Neptune Frost''.Wendy Ide"‘Neptune Frost’: Cannes Review" ''Screen Daily'', ...

and starring Cheryl Isheja, Elvis Ngabo and Kaya Free. Set in a post-civil war Rwanda spanning past, future, and present times, the film follows the relationship between an intersex hacker and a coltan miner. Ezra Miller is a producer and Lin-Manuel Miranda an executive producer. It had its world premiere at the

2021 Cannes Film Festival The 74th annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 6 to 17 July 2021, after having been originally scheduled from 11 to 22 May 2021. American filmmaker Spike Lee was invited to be the president of the jury for the main competition for the fes ...

in the Directors Fortnight section on July 8, 2021, and was released in the United States on June 3, 2022, by

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art film, art ho ...

to critical acclaim.

Plot

The film is an Afrofuturist story set in a village in

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

made of computer parts, and centers on the relationship between Neptune, an

intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...

runaway, and Matalusa, a coltan miner, whose love leads a hacker collective. The film begins with images of mining and sounds of communal song. In the mines are Matalusa and his brother Tekno, who dies from the power of coltan he mines. The death of Tekno prompts Matalusa's hero's journey. Neptune's story also begins with death, as they attend a funeral for their grandmother in which they also sing together to express their grief. The subconscious connection between Matalusa and Neptune, manifesting as visions sent by their future child, draw them together, each embarking on their on-the-road journeys across the country to find the "Unanimous Goldmine" community. "Unanimous Goldmine" is a code of unity that identifies characters' kinship to the group of young adults that encompass it in another realm layered upon reality. The two become the leaders of this community, bonded by powerful rhetoric through speech and song as well as a mission to subvert the big tech powers that control the internet. Neptune's technokinetic abilities allow them to spread their ideas, creed and philosophy across the world through a series of hacks. Unable to trace its origin, Neptune's virus is blamed on Russia and China by world powers until Memory's brother, Innocent, posing in the disguise of the autocratic state's police officers, stumbles upon the hidden Unanimous Goldmine and briefly reunites with his sister. Memory compassionately scolds him for an earlier encounter with Neptune where discovering their gender caused him to react violently. She asks him to leave them in peace and discourages him from speaking with Neptune. But it is too late, as he has been followed by a drone which subsequently ousts them to the world. The community is quickly destroyed by an explosion, though Neptune survives, having been away at the time of execution. The lone survivor of the attack, they project and reveal their existence to world before the film ends.

Cast

* Cheryl Isheja as Neptune * Elvis Ngabo as Neptune * Bertrand "Kaya Free" Ninteretse as Matalusa * Eliane Umuhire as Memory * Dorcy Rugamba as Innocent * Rebecca Uwamahoro as Elohel * Trésor Niyongabo as Psychology * Eric Ngangare "1Key" as Potolo * Natacha Muziramakenga as Binya * Cécile Kayirebwa as Nun * Diogene "Atome" Ntarindwa as Priest

Production

The project was originally conceived by

as a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

in 2013, and later a stage musical.Wendy Ide
"‘Neptune Frost’: Cannes Review"
''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'', July 14, 2021. Williams' 2016 album '' MartyrLoserKing'' explored further ideas that were incorporated into the film. In 2018, Williams launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign to raise funds, with Lin-Manuel Miranda joining as an

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

. In February 2020, it was announced that Ezra Miller and Stephen Hendel were set to produce, with

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

commencing. Production took place over the course of 27 days in Rwanda. ''Neptune Frost'' is the debut feature film by directors Saul Williams and Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, described as "a bombastic Afrofuturist sci-fi punk musical" on Rogerebert.com. "Neptune Frost" is the name of a black

Revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

soldier who served in the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

in 1775.

Release

''Neptune Frost'' had its world premiere on July 8, 2021. at the Directors' Fortnight section at the

, where it was a nominee for the Queer Palm. It had its North American premiere in the Wavelengths program at the

2021 Toronto International Film Festival The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the 46th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 9 to 18, 2021.Barry Hertz"TIFF planning ‘substantially bigger’ 2021 film festival compared to last year’ ...

on September 10, 2021. It also screened at the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

on October 2, 2021. and the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2022. It had its Australian premiere at the

Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venic ...

in August 2022, where it won the inaugural Bright Horizons award, the richest film prize in the southern hemisphere, at in cash. In December 2021,

acquired distribution rights. It was released in the United States on a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on June 3, 2022.

Reception

The site's critical consensus reads "Bursting with ideas and ambition, ''Neptune Frost'' is difficult to describe -- and just as hard to resist." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film had a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". In November 2022, the film was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 11873472 2021 films 2021 science fiction films 2021 LGBTQ-related films American musical films American science fiction films American LGBTQ-related films Rwandan drama films Rwandan LGBTQ-related films English-language Rwandan films Afrofuturist films Science fiction musical films LGBTQ-related science fiction films LGBTQ-related musical films Kickstarter-funded films Intersex-related films 2020s American films 2021 musical films Films produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda American feminist films 2020s feminist films Films shot in Rwanda