NEPTUNE FROST

Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has explored in his work, notably his 2016 album MartyrLoserKing. Co-directed with the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, the film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry.

Set between states of being – past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience – NEPTUNE FROST is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends.

Directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman

Starring Cheryl Isheja, Bertrand Ninteretse "Kaya Free," Eliane Umuhire, Dorcy Rugamba

NR | Uganda, US | 2021 | 1h 45m

In Kinyarwanda, English, Swahili and French with English subtitles

Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, New York Film Festival  

“Critic’s Pick! Mind-bending. An Afrofuturist fantasia that is also a musical, a science-fiction parable and a hacker manifesto.” – The New York Times

“A spirited, one-of-a-kind film… Not since Zabriskie Point has psychedelia and Marxism worked together so effectively on screen.” – The A.V. Club

“As rich in its thematic ideas as it is colorful, Williams and Uzeyman have crafted a universe all their own… where freedom is found within nature and technology.” – RogerEbert.com

“Enigmatic, poetic, allegorical, operatic, eerie.” – NPR

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