Already hailed as a future cult film, this lav­ish­ly dec­o­rat­ed musi­cal impress­es with its rich­ness of asso­ci­a­tions. In a fan­tas­tic vision of the future, many con­tem­po­rary issues appear bun­dled and pack­aged into a rebel­lious anti-colo­nial­ist appeal.   

The story takes place in Rwanda, the young miner Matalusa flees after his broth­er Tekno has been slain and sex­u­al­ly harassed by a priest. One night he is sur­prised by beings from anoth­er world, towards which he moves in the fur­ther course. At the same time the inter­sex­u­al Nep­tune drifts through dif­fer­ent places. Both arrive at a hacker com­mu­ni­ty hiding like par­ti­sans in the moun­tains in a camp made of recy­cled com­put­er parts. Their love at first sight trig­gers a cosmic push - trans­lat­ed into vir­tu­al dimen­sions. The cyber par­ti­sans team up with coltan miners and become hack­tivists, prepar­ing to revolt against the resource-rich, cock­roach-breed­ing econ­o­my and gain 5 mil­lion fol­low­ers overnight…  

This film will be screened simul­ta­ne­ous­ly at Unseen as part of our #Junction_Nairobi, fol­lowed by a shared discussion.

Saul Williams is a renowned author and musi­cian since his debut album, Amethyst Rock Star, was released in 2001. He has per­formed in over 30 coun­tries and read in over 300 uni­ver­si­ties, with invi­ta­tions that have spanned from the White House, the Sydney Opera House, Lin­coln Center, The Louvre, The Getty Center, to count­less, vil­lages, town­ships, com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters, and pris­ons across the world. The New­burgh, NY, native gained a BA from More­house and an MFA from Tisch School of the Arts, and has gone on to record with Nine Inch Nails and Allen Gins­burg, as well as count­less film and tele­vi­sion appear­ances. In 2016 he start­ed the multi-tiered Mar­tyr­LoserK­ing project with an album of the same title. 2019 fol­lowed the second album Encrypt­ed & Vul­ner­a­ble, which acts as the score for NEPTUNE FROST.   

Anisia Uzey­man was born in Rwanda in 1975 and is an actress, play­wright, stage and film direc­tor. She stud­ied acting at the Col­lege of The­atre in France. As an actress, Uzey­man appeared in the award-win­ning films TEY (2012) by Alain Gomis and AYITI, MON AMOUR (2016) by Guetty Felin. Her exper­i­men­tal debut film, DREAMSTATES, pre­miered at the 2016 New York African Film Fes­ti­val and was shot entire­ly on iPhone. She has writ­ten and direct­ed four plays, includ­ing Immac­u­late and HOW/Particle (at La Générale de Paris). Uzey­man has also direct­ed music videos for Sons Of An Illus­tri­ous Father, Saul Williams and Mehdi Cayenne.

Direc­tors: Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Anisia Uzeyman
Music: Saul Williams
Key Cast: Cheryl Isheja, Kaya Free, Eliane Umuhire, Dorcy Rugamba