Neptune Frost

Afrofuturistic queer sci-fi musical connects ancient exploitation with modern technology, co-created by the poet and hip-hop artist Saul Williams.

On the surface, Williams and Anisia Uzeyman’s first co-directed film – based on a graphic novel and stage musical by Williams – is a love story that takes places in Rwanda, between Neptune, who is intersex and on the run from oppression, and the miner Matalusa, who extracts coltan, the mineral familiar as a component in mobile phones. A veritable revolution springs from their love. The non-linear story that takes shape is a rich and artistically unrestrained protest against today’s cynical exploitation of the region’s resources and the colonization that preceded it, as well as a tempestuous homage to a timeless, visionary tradition. Extra praise to the fanciful costumes.

• Katarina Hedrén