Take Sun Ra's Space is the Place. Update it to modern day Africa. It runs like Powaqaatsi if that movie had an actual plot. Combine liberally with costumes and makeup reminiscent of Liquid Sky. Add in a teaspoon of 2001. A dash of Viridiana. Fold in liberal amounts of Marxist poetry. Beware, it's a musical. Probably the only sci-fi-ish musical ever attempted. The musical parts often drag on in parts, especially the anti-Imperialism poetry jams. However, it's well worth the watch for all the color! Contains enough gender bending to qualify as a product of the 21st century. WTF did I just watch, will be your reaction upon the conclusion. Tunes reminiscent of Aphex Twin, Deep Forest, and the Red Army Choir. Destined to become a cult favorite in 20 years or so.
10 Reviews
Weird Movie, yet memorizing
chenp-5470821 April 2022
Originally premiered at the 2021 Toronto Film Festival and 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
This is the first movie I have seen made in Rwanda (also the United States took part of this project as well) and it is directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman and it is about an intersex African hacker, a coltan miner and the virtual marvel born as a result of their union. This movie is pretty strange, but I quite liked it.
Williams and Uzeyman is able to create a weird African musical science fiction type story through strange colorful production designs, weird performances, poetic dialogue, and very strange narrative choices throughout this movie. It felt more like an experience then actually watching a movie about characters roaming around the planet earth. The dialogue is interesting despite some of the wording feels a little fake. But the poetic lyrics and tone helps to keep it from falling. The colorful production and colorful background really helps to keep your eyes glued to the screen. All the performances are strange because I can't tell if they are being good or bad on purpose. Like it's trying to be an experimental still of filmmaking. Almost like something The Weekend would do but this is much more poetic then a The Weekend music video.
I don't often see movies from Africa and there are some really hidden gems in the African landscape. Movies like "Black Girl, Borders (2017), and Lingui, the Sacred Bonds" shows that African cinema is out there but you need to just look for them. I recommend this movie. It's weird but interesting.
Rating: B.
This is the first movie I have seen made in Rwanda (also the United States took part of this project as well) and it is directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman and it is about an intersex African hacker, a coltan miner and the virtual marvel born as a result of their union. This movie is pretty strange, but I quite liked it.
Williams and Uzeyman is able to create a weird African musical science fiction type story through strange colorful production designs, weird performances, poetic dialogue, and very strange narrative choices throughout this movie. It felt more like an experience then actually watching a movie about characters roaming around the planet earth. The dialogue is interesting despite some of the wording feels a little fake. But the poetic lyrics and tone helps to keep it from falling. The colorful production and colorful background really helps to keep your eyes glued to the screen. All the performances are strange because I can't tell if they are being good or bad on purpose. Like it's trying to be an experimental still of filmmaking. Almost like something The Weekend would do but this is much more poetic then a The Weekend music video.
I don't often see movies from Africa and there are some really hidden gems in the African landscape. Movies like "Black Girl, Borders (2017), and Lingui, the Sacred Bonds" shows that African cinema is out there but you need to just look for them. I recommend this movie. It's weird but interesting.
Rating: B.
Meticulously Crafted Sci-Fi Musical
samxxxul10 September 2022
In this current wokester phase when things become stagnant, repetitive it is very rare to see filmmakers push forward and create something unique. This DIY Afrofuturists utopian musical is one such experiment which we don't see happen every now and then. But it is hard to define "Neptune Frost" to any genre, there's a bit of everything here.
The movie even highlights very significant and deep philosophical thoughts and problems like colonialism, data dictatorship, capitalism and many more. It is a gloomy picture which paints the journey of intersex hacker Neptune and Matalusa. Then we have a community called Digitalisa which is a safe haven for young hackers. There is many more threads going on with and we get a glimpse of lives of both the characters, the past and the coltan mine which works as an allegory for the film with musical numbers as a sign of protest. The soundscapes are in abundance here as they're used to push the narrative and as a harmony for the filmmakers code about technology and its labor. What I found interesting was the sequence here, with each track being different right from the opening ambient followed by the drum thumping in the coal mine and the breath taking finale and the post-credit closing with glitches which is structurally the simplest with just purely ambient eerie drone sound as Neptune looks up and speaks to the camera. Those who are aware of the Burundians and Rwandans history will tend to like it even more.
To summarize, this is a very contemplative, surrealistic meditative musical with stunning cinematography. Few will draw comparison to Bacurau (2019), the works of the legendary Sun Ra, Jacques Baratier. In addition i would love to add Jean-Pierre Bekolo's Les saignantes (2005) which is one of the most overlooked sci-fi. I could say a lot more about 'Neptune Frost', the costumes, art direction but why? I will need to revisit this again and recommend everyone to see this movie for yourself, support a indie films. I also recommend you to watch Night of the Kings from Ivory Coast directed by Philippe Lacôte, Atlantics from Senegal directed by Mati Diop, This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection from Lesotho directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.
The movie even highlights very significant and deep philosophical thoughts and problems like colonialism, data dictatorship, capitalism and many more. It is a gloomy picture which paints the journey of intersex hacker Neptune and Matalusa. Then we have a community called Digitalisa which is a safe haven for young hackers. There is many more threads going on with and we get a glimpse of lives of both the characters, the past and the coltan mine which works as an allegory for the film with musical numbers as a sign of protest. The soundscapes are in abundance here as they're used to push the narrative and as a harmony for the filmmakers code about technology and its labor. What I found interesting was the sequence here, with each track being different right from the opening ambient followed by the drum thumping in the coal mine and the breath taking finale and the post-credit closing with glitches which is structurally the simplest with just purely ambient eerie drone sound as Neptune looks up and speaks to the camera. Those who are aware of the Burundians and Rwandans history will tend to like it even more.
To summarize, this is a very contemplative, surrealistic meditative musical with stunning cinematography. Few will draw comparison to Bacurau (2019), the works of the legendary Sun Ra, Jacques Baratier. In addition i would love to add Jean-Pierre Bekolo's Les saignantes (2005) which is one of the most overlooked sci-fi. I could say a lot more about 'Neptune Frost', the costumes, art direction but why? I will need to revisit this again and recommend everyone to see this movie for yourself, support a indie films. I also recommend you to watch Night of the Kings from Ivory Coast directed by Philippe Lacôte, Atlantics from Senegal directed by Mati Diop, This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection from Lesotho directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.
Beautiful Imagery, No plot development
Megan_Shida26 August 2022
It seems like everything went into aesthetics with this one. There are really cool ideas and backgrounds and characters, but instead of plot development, we just get a lot of concepts shouted at us instead. This would have been better simply as an album or long music video, in my opinion. I am a huge Saul Williams fan and had hoped for a more complete movie experience.
Unique masterpiece of Afrofuturist pioneering
a-friend-582-2348125 February 2023
I watched this film with 3 of my friends. 4 of us together, all young white guys, and we all liked it.
I especially LOVED IT! <3
This is a unique, creative masterpiece of a film. It's artsy, experimental, clearly limited budget - but it all works out great.
Sure, there's little plot. But not every movie needs a plot to be good, some movies are just great pieces of art, an experience - and this is one of those.
I can promise you, as far as such promises are possible, that you have never seen anything like it before. And as a development in the new genre of Afrofuturism, I personally believe that this movie could be a pivotal moment in the history of African film. A pioneer to inspire others about what can be made.
Don't judge this movie by any standards you're familiar with (especially Hollywood). View it through the lense of something new, fresh, exciting, and I'm sure most would agree with me that this is something truly special. An experience absolutely worth watching.
I especially LOVED IT! <3
This is a unique, creative masterpiece of a film. It's artsy, experimental, clearly limited budget - but it all works out great.
Sure, there's little plot. But not every movie needs a plot to be good, some movies are just great pieces of art, an experience - and this is one of those.
I can promise you, as far as such promises are possible, that you have never seen anything like it before. And as a development in the new genre of Afrofuturism, I personally believe that this movie could be a pivotal moment in the history of African film. A pioneer to inspire others about what can be made.
Don't judge this movie by any standards you're familiar with (especially Hollywood). View it through the lense of something new, fresh, exciting, and I'm sure most would agree with me that this is something truly special. An experience absolutely worth watching.
Contemporary dance disguised as a movie. It works for the most part
conannz15 August 2022
Neptune Frost is completely trippy. Black codes from the underground meets cloud networks but all expressed as some kind of extended contemporary dance piece.
Parts are simply incoherent but there is always something to look at. It is interesting to have 2 or three characters in the foreground having a poetry recital while in the background there are often dancers interpreting the music that we are all hearing.
There are a number of ideas going on here and I really enjoyed this film as a creative and engaging although the stilted dialogue was a bit too theatrical for its own good.
It was very much like some kind of theatre / contemporary dance piece where the words are clues to the story but not the whole story at all.
I read somewhere that the music was 3 albums worth and when I saw the drummers at the end I was ready for the film to finish so that editing felt like a natural arc. I saw this film at a film festival and I hope it gets wider release. It is exciting and visually and musically very much a success on its own terms. There is a narrative but I think that is secondary.
Parts are simply incoherent but there is always something to look at. It is interesting to have 2 or three characters in the foreground having a poetry recital while in the background there are often dancers interpreting the music that we are all hearing.
There are a number of ideas going on here and I really enjoyed this film as a creative and engaging although the stilted dialogue was a bit too theatrical for its own good.
It was very much like some kind of theatre / contemporary dance piece where the words are clues to the story but not the whole story at all.
I read somewhere that the music was 3 albums worth and when I saw the drummers at the end I was ready for the film to finish so that editing felt like a natural arc. I saw this film at a film festival and I hope it gets wider release. It is exciting and visually and musically very much a success on its own terms. There is a narrative but I think that is secondary.
An incoherent acid trip, but not in a fun way.
georgewasherballs6 May 2023
Watching this felt exactly like what it feels like to be the only sober person in a club full of drunk people. If you've ever been a designated driver and had to listen to the cooing and obnoxious behaviors of drunk people, that is the equivalent to what watching this movie felt like. This movie was an incoherent acid trip, but not in a fun way. Unnamed characters, with no dialogue, would look at the camera and have post processing special effects applied to them with the same quality you'd expect in a high school film class. Except the high school film class would at least add dialogue and a coherent plot.
I waited optimistically for this film to make sense. You cling to the hope that, if you suffer through 20 minutes of the oddity that you would be rewarded with something that makes it all click into place. But that thing never comes. This movie remains the same pointless spectacle from beginning to end, except at least in the beginning the spectacle is interesting. By the time the audience makes it 5 minutes into the movie, the visual spectacle isn't even interesting anymore.
I waited optimistically for this film to make sense. You cling to the hope that, if you suffer through 20 minutes of the oddity that you would be rewarded with something that makes it all click into place. But that thing never comes. This movie remains the same pointless spectacle from beginning to end, except at least in the beginning the spectacle is interesting. By the time the audience makes it 5 minutes into the movie, the visual spectacle isn't even interesting anymore.
I kindly love it
ShesLikeTheWind10 August 2022
What an interesting film! Music and philosophy all tied up together in a monolithic way. The director sure knew lots of history and stuff. I love the musical sequences. And some of this was downright disturbing and sexual in a sexual way. I loved it!
A joy to watch
alastairkemp4 August 2023
Warning: Spoilers
A most amazing and engaging festival of hurt, anguish, happiness, co-operation, enjoyment, celebration and transformation.
The film starts with a scene involving mine workers, then brings in an inter-sex character, who then goes on a journey, meeting several characters before we end up in a futurist collective living in a kind of self-sufficient farm commune, discussing their activism.
There are elements for those who need more Western references of Sun Ra, bass music, the type of collective discussion as discussed in hip hop and jazz literature such as Heble and Fischlin's Otherside of Nowhere, especially the chapter A Way Out of No Way Out by Mark Alexander Neal (a clue without too much of a spoiler - they don't necessarily make it out)
But really it should be watched as a film based in Burundi performed by Burundians telling the world about themselves.
It has song and dance throughout. And is a joy to watch.
The film starts with a scene involving mine workers, then brings in an inter-sex character, who then goes on a journey, meeting several characters before we end up in a futurist collective living in a kind of self-sufficient farm commune, discussing their activism.
There are elements for those who need more Western references of Sun Ra, bass music, the type of collective discussion as discussed in hip hop and jazz literature such as Heble and Fischlin's Otherside of Nowhere, especially the chapter A Way Out of No Way Out by Mark Alexander Neal (a clue without too much of a spoiler - they don't necessarily make it out)
But really it should be watched as a film based in Burundi performed by Burundians telling the world about themselves.
It has song and dance throughout. And is a joy to watch.
Starts a bit hazy but it all ties up
jaykwe14 July 2022
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
