Neptune Frost

Last updated
Neptune Frost
NeptuneFrost.jpg
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 by Kino 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 co-directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman 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.

Contents

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 music, African oral tradition [4] and song-poetry to express the complexity of Burundian and Rwandan identities explored in the film. [5] The narrative structure unfolds through musical and rhetorical allegories [6] around themes of patriarchy [7] and feminism.

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

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

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saul Williams</span> American singer, musician, poet, writer, and actor (born 1972)

Saul Stacey Williams 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 the 2013 jukebox musical Holler If Ya Hear Me.

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 house films, such as documentary films, classic and rarely seen films from earlier periods in the history of cinema, and world cinema. In addition to theatrical distribution, Kino Lorber releases films in the home entertainment market and has its own streaming services for its digital library.

Anisia Uzeyman is a Rwandan actress and playwright. She is most noted as codirector with Saul Williams of the 2021 film Neptune Frost. She was born at Gihindamuyaga in Mbazi, Rwanda.

<i>Today</i> (2012 film) 2012 film

Today is a 2012 French-Senegalese film directed by Alain Gomis. The film competed in competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012.

<i>I cannibali</i> 1970 Italian film

I cannibali, English title The Cannibals or The Year of the Cannibals, is a 1970 Italian drama film directed by Liliana Cavani and starring Britt Ekland, Pierre Clémenti, and Tomas Milian. It is a modernized retelling of the Greek tragedy Antigone, set in contemporary Milan and drawing upon socio-political themes and imagery of the time, including the protests of 1968, the counter-cultural movement, and the Years of Lead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Kirk (filmmaker)</span> American film director

Tim Kirk is a writer, director, and producer who currently lives in Los Angeles.

<i>Youre Sleeping Nicole</i> 2014 film

You're Sleeping Nicole is a 2014 Canadian drama film directed by Stéphane Lafleur. It was selected to be screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The film had a limited release on 22 August 2014, followed by a general Quebec theatrical release on 29 August 2014. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

<i>Of Men and War</i> 2014 French film

Of Men and War is a 2014 documentary film by Laurent Bécue-Renard. It explores the psychological legacy of war on a group of American veterans returning from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The men are undergoing trauma therapy at The Pathway Home, a residential treatment program on the grounds of the Veterans Home in Yountville, CA until 2018. Over the course of five years, they participate in group therapy and one-on-one sessions and gradually transform their trauma into narratives of survival before returning home to their wives, children, and parents. The film premiered in the Special Screenings section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The film won the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary at the 2014 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. It received a European Film Award for Best Documentary nomination at the 27th European Film Awards and screened at the Museum of Modern Art's Documentary Fortnight.

<i>Songs My Brothers Taught Me</i> 2015 film by Chloé Zhao

Songs My Brothers Taught Me is a 2015 American independent coming-of-age Native American drama tragedy film written and directed by Chloé Zhao in her feature film directorial debut, and produced by Zhao and Forest Whitaker. Developed at the Sundance Institute workshops, the film, set in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, explores the bond between a Lakota Sioux brother and his younger sister.

<i>Frost</i> (2017 film) 2017 film

Frost is a 2017 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Šarūnas Bartas. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. It was selected as the Lithuanian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

<i>Synonyms</i> (film) 2019 film by Nadav Lapid

Synonyms is a 2019 international co-produced drama film directed by Nadav Lapid, from a screenplay by Lapid and Haim Lapid. It stars Tom Mercier, Quentin Dolmaire and Louise Chevillotte. It had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on 13 February 2019, where it won the Golden Bear, and the FIPRESCI Award (Competition). It was released in Israel on 28 February 2019, in France on 27 March 2019, by SBS Distribution and in Germany on 5 September 2019, by Grand Film. The film received positive reviews from critics.

<i>Tommaso</i> (2019 film) 2019 film by Abel Ferrara

Tommaso is a 2019 internationally co-produced drama film, written and directed by Abel Ferrara. It stars Willem Dafoe. The film had its world premiere at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival on 20 May 2019. It was released in the United States on 5 June 2020 by Kino Lorber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Cannes Film Festival</span> 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 director Spike Lee was invited to be the head of the jury for the festival for a second time, after the COVID-19 pandemic in France scuttled plans to have him head the jury of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival.

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 20 to 30, 2022. Due to COVID-19 pandemic protocol, it was initially intended to be an in-person/virtual hybrid festival, but on January 5, 2022, it was announced that the in-person components would be scrapped in favor of a wholly virtual festival due to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 9, 2021.

Murina is a 2021 internationally co-produced drama film, directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, in her feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Alamat Kusijanović and Frank Graziano. It stars Gracija Filipović, Leon Lučev, Danica Curcic, and Cliff Curtis. Martin Scorsese served as an executive producer under his Sikelia Productions banner.

The Sea Ahead is a 2021 Lebanese film directed and written by Ely Dagher. Starring Manal Issa, Roger Azar, Yara Abi Haidar, Rabih Al Zaher, Fadi Abi Samra and Joseph Sassine.

The following is a list of events and releases that happened in 2022 in African music.

<i>Hit the Road</i> (2021 film) 2021 Iranian film

Hit the Road is a 2021 Iranian road comedy-drama film written and directed by Panah Panahi in his feature debut. It depicts an Iranian family driving to the Turkish border to smuggle their young adult son out of the country. It premiered in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, and won top prizes at the BFI London Film Festival and the Singapore International Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliane Umuhire</span> Rwandan-French actress

Eliane Umuhire is a French-Rwandan actress. Her artistic career explores themes of identity, memory and resilience. Her work has been featured in films presented at prestigious international festivals, where she has won awards for her acting and social commitment. Notably acclaimed for her role in the Polish film Birds Are Singing in Kigali by Krzystof Krauze & Joanna Kos, Eliane has been honored with Best Actress awards at festivals such as the Chicago International Film Festival, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Gdynia Polish Fiction Festival, the Polish Festival in New York, the Let's CEE Festival in Vienna, as well as the Mastercard Rising Star award at the Netia Off Camera independent film festival.

Panah Panahi is an Iranian film director. His debut film, Hit the Road, premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, and was named Best Film at the 2021 BFI London Film Festival.

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. 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 [ bare URL ]
  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. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.