Neptune Frost

Neptune Frost, directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, is an Afrofuturist musical science fiction film shot in Rwanda, about escaped coltan miners in Burundi who form a hacker collective attempting to overthrow an authoritarian regime. The intersex character Neptune is played by two different actors across the film, Cheryl Isheja and Elvis Ngabo, a deliberate directorial choice to visually represent the character's gender fluidity. The film's original music was composed by poet and musician Saul Williams; the project is the culmination of a multi-stage work he began in 2013 as a graphic novel concept, which he developed into a concept album (MartyrLoserKing, 2016) and a stage musical before reaching the screen. The film began as a 2018 Kickstarter campaign, with producers including both Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ezra Miller. It had its world premiere in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival and holds a 96 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Who it's for: anyone curious about an Afrofuturist musical shot in Kinyarwanda, the result of an eight year creative journey from graphic novel concept to concept album to stage musical to feature film. Who it's not for: those expecting a conventional narrative structure, since the film relies on a poetic, fragmented style of storytelling.