Courtesy 5000 Broadway Productions
It takes longer than a half hour to grasp what might be happening in the new Afro-futurist -musical Neptune Frost, and by its end credits, you won’t be amiss to ask yourself or others what it all was about. If you can grasp its threads and make sense of the chaos, however, it offers substantially more than any classic Hollywood formula can.
Here, find parallel stories working in tandem, wherein two individuals (Elvis Ngabo/Cheryl Isheja as Neptune and Bertrand Ninteretse as Matalusa) respond to governmental oppression by hopping through dimensions. Under the guiding light of the Wheel Man, a mystical being who adorns a metallic cap with twirling bicycle spokes, they use technology to upend the oligarchs corrupting their nation. Neptune Frost is big on ideas, but its plot is its least accessible feature and perhaps becomes too grandiose for what it seems to be attempting to reach.
But its symbolism is potent: the blending of traditional African community aspects with vlogging, computers, drones and exploitative mining practices. It opens with a reminder that much of our modern tech is powered by cobalt that is mined primarily by oppressed workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Sad notes aside, Afro-Futurism remains a major bright spot offered by the continent’s filmmakers and its diaspora. Directors Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman aren’t fearful of the future, either. Instead, their film lingers in the liberating promise technology might bring rather than the dystopia it has helped create. Dimensional travel becomes a shorthand for freedom from modern colonial/corporate powers, and a flat-out dismissal of traditional gender notions becomes a smart reminder that the “backwardness” sometimes associated with African countries isn’t innate. This is a lesson to all future filmmakers—Uzeyman and Williams do not tip-toe. Instead they go for broke in their commitment to a neon-drenched aesthetic. Even so, certain triumphs betray a lag in Neptune’s technical aspects, but its less-polished realism might delight more careful or thoughtful viewers.
Colonialism and exploitation leave behind curious effects, and cinema has often expressed that shortsightedness with lazy practices. Take, for example, the inability to light Black people properly—especially anyone with darker skin tones. Most modern lighting techniques are designed to highlight lighter features, but Frost’s skilled cinematographer (Uzeyman in this case) finally gives dark-skinned performers a chance to shine. For this and many other reasons, Neptune Frost is worth the challenge as it showcases the power of Black women behind the camera.
7
+Visually spectacular; killer music
-Somewhat incomprehensible, but it comes together
Neptune Frost
Directed by Uzeyman and Williams
With Cheryl Isheja, Kaya Free and Elvis Ngabo
CCA, Jean Coctaeu Cinema, NR, 110 min.
