Neptune Frost
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Written bySaul Williams
Produced by
Starring
  • Elvis Ngabo
  • Cheryl Isheja
  • Kaya Free
CinematographyAnisia Uzeyman
Edited byAnisha Acharya
Music bySaul Williams
Production
companies
  • Swan Films
  • Sopherim
  • Knitting Factory Entertainment
  • SPKN/WRD
  • Quiet
  • Carte Blanche
  • Redwire Pictures
Distributed byKino Lorber
Release dates
  • July 8, 2021 (2021-07-08) (Cannes)
  • June 3, 2022 (2022-06-03) (United States)
Running time
110 minutes
Countries
  • Rwanda
  • United States
Languages
  • Kinyarwanda
  • Kirundi
  • Swahili
  • French
  • English
Box office$203,393[1][2]

Neptune Frost is a 2021 science fiction romantic musical film co-directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, and starring Cheryl Isheja, Elvis Ngabo and Kaya Free. It follows the relationship between Neptune and Matalusa, coltan miners whose love leads a hacker collective. Ezra Miller serves as a producer, while Lin-Manuel Miranda executive produces.

It had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors Fortnight section on July 8, 2021, and was released in the United States on June 3, 2022, by Kino Lorber to critical acclaim. Neptune Frost is the name of a black Revolutionary soldier who served in the Continental Army in 1775.[3]

Neptune Frost uses the musical genre to embrace oral tradition[4] and song-poetry deep in the roots of African history and modern culture to express the complexity of the Burundian and Rwandan identities explored in the film.[5] The narrative structure unfolds through musical and rhetorical allegories[6] that acknowledge themes of patriarchy[7] and feminist science fiction literature.

Plot

The film is an Afrofuturist story set in a village in Burundi made of computer parts, and centers on the relationship between Neptune, an intersex runaway, and Matalusa, a coltan miner, whose love leads a hacker collective.[8]

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.

Analysis

The Afrofuturist film delves into the power of the subconscious and surreal not just with plot but also with song, costuming, and the names of the characters such as Memory and Psychology. Vogel writes "the surrealists proudly proclaim poetry (the subconscious) the supreme weapon of knowledge and conquest," in Film as A Subversive Art.[9] Neptune Frost exemplifies the surrealist conquest over the foreign material powers that exploit the region, body, mind, and soul, most directly referenced near the end of the film when China and Russia mentioned directly as the oppressors using and exploiting tech.

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 Saul Williams as a graphic novel and stage musical.[10] In 2018, Williams launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds, with Lin-Manuel Miranda joining as an executive producer.[11]

In February 2020, it was announced that Ezra Miller and Stephen Hendel were set to produce, with principal photography commencing.[12] Production took place over the course of 27 days in Rwanda.[13]

Release

Neptune Frost had its world premiere on July 8, 2021. at the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival,[14] where it was a nominee for the Queer Palm.[15] It had its North American premiere in the Wavelengths program at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2021.[16][17] It also screened at the New York Film Festival on October 2, 2021.[18][19] and the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2022.[20] It had its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, where it won the Bright Horizons Award.

In December 2021, Kino Lorber acquired distribution rights.[21] It was released in the United States on a limited release on June 3, 2022.[22]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 77 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.80/10.[23] The site's critical consensus reads "Bursting with ideas and ambition, Neptune Frost is difficult to describe -- and just as hard to resist."[24] On Metacritic, the film had a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[25]

In November 2022, the film was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography.[26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Neptune Frost (2022)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Neptune Frost (2021)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  3. ↑ Sparling, Georgia (Jun 5, 2018). "Historian seeks to honor forgotten black soldiers". Lesley University. Lesley University. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  4. ↑ Nzabatsinda, Anthère; Mitsch, R. H. (1997). "The Aesthetics of Transcribing Orality in the Works of Alexis Kagame, Writer of Rwanda". Research in African Literatures. 28 (1): 98–111. JSTOR 3819921.
  5. ↑ Gates, Marya E. "Female Filmmakers in Focus: Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams on Neptune Frost | Interviews | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com/. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  6. ↑ https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrEqGgYaVlk2C81DTsPxQt.;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZANMT0NVSTA5M0NfMQRzZWMDc2M-/RV=2/RE=1683610008/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.thoughtco.com%2fallegory-definition-1692386%23%3a~%3atext%3dAn%2520allegory%2520is%2520the%2520rhetorical%2520strategy%2520of%2520extending%2cequate%2520to%2520meanings%2520that%2520lie%2520outside%2520the%2520text./RK=2/RS=ANmQbyA6iwkHeigqal_NvbnSPNc-%5B%5D
  7. ↑ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patriarchy
  8. ↑ Tambay Obenson, "‘Neptune Frost’: Saul Williams Confronts Status Quo with East African Cyber Musical". IndieWire, July 17, 2021.
  9. ↑ Vogel, Amos (1974). Film is a Subversive Art (1st ed.). New York: Random House. p. 46. ISBN 0-394-73207-3.
  10. ↑ Wendy Ide, "‘Neptune Frost’: Cannes Review". Screen Daily, July 14, 2021.
  11. ↑ Wicks, Amanda (July 13, 2018). "Saul Williams Shares New Song, Announces Film Kickstarter Campaign: Listen". Pitchfork. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  12. ↑ Day-Ramos, Dino (February 3, 2020). "Ezra Miller And Saul Williams Launch MartyrLoserKin Productions, Sets Sci-Fi Musical 'Neptune Frost' As First Project". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  13. ↑ Christopher Vourlias, "Saul Williams on Mad Dash to Bring His African Sci-Fi Musical ‘Neptune Frost’ to Cannes". Variety, July 16, 2021.
  14. ↑ Tom Grater, "‘Neptune Frost’ First Clip: Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Pic Is Produced By Ezra Miller & Lin-Manuel Miranda". Deadline Hollywood, July 11, 2021.
  15. ↑ Yves Lafontaine, "Les films du Festival de Cannes en lice pour la Queer Palm". Fugues, June 29, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Neptune Frost". Toronto International Film Festival. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  17. ↑ Ben Dalton, "Toronto sets TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness, Wavelengths titles for 2021". Screen Daily, August 4, 2021.
  18. ↑ "Neptune Frost". New York Film Festival. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  19. ↑ "59th New York Film Festival Main Slate Announced". New York Film Festival. August 10, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  20. ↑ Lang, Brent (December 9, 2021). "Sundance Unveils 2022 Feature Lineup, Including Films From Lena Dunham, Amy Poehler and Netflix's Kanye West Doc". Variety. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  21. ↑ Complex, Valerie (December 17, 2021). "Kino Lorber Acquires AfroFuturist Musical 'Neptune Frost' By Saul Williams And Anisia Uzeyman". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  22. ↑ Egan, Toussaint (May 4, 2022). "Neptune Frost's first trailer offers a glimpse at Saul Williams' boundary-pushing Afropunk sci-fi musical". Polygon. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  23. ↑ "Neptune Frost". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  24. ↑ "Neptune Frost". Rotten Tomatoes.
  25. ↑ "Neptune Frost". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  26. ↑ Lattanzio, Ryan (2022-11-22). "'Everything Everywhere,' 'TÁR' Lead Independent Spirit Award Nominations: See the Full List". IndieWire. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
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