A fantastic new sci-fi musical is on the horizon from Saul Williams, who co-directs alongside cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman and brings an Afrofuturist vision to the big screen with the sci-fi musical “Neptune Frost.” It will be executive produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda (“In The Heights“) and Stephen Hendel (“Finding Fela“) and features all-original music from Williams.
A stunning new trailer has been released for “Neptune Frost, which you can see below.
The sci-fi pic was reviewed by The Playlist during last year’s New York Film Festival and was called “dramatically inert and quite didactic” while also having “ideas [that] are as playful as well as passionate.”
An official synopsis for the film reads as follows:
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.
It’s cast consists of Cheryl Isheja, Bertrand Ninteretse aka “Kaya Free,” Eliane Umuhire, Dorcy Rugamba, Rebecca Mucyo, Trésor Niyongabo, Eric Ngangare aka “1Key,” Natacha Muziramakenga, Elvis Ngabo aka “Bobo,” and with the special participation of Cécile Kayirebwa.
“Neptune Frost” will open on June 3 at the Quad and BAM in New York City with a national rollout to follow, including the Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on June 10. Stay tuned as more release information is announced.