Neptune Frost: Afrofuturist Rhapsody
Neptune Frost presents an allegory of capitalism and colonialism through a collage of vibrant sounds, visuals, and language. Mixing together anarchist politics and aesthetics to create something that feels punk and handmade.
The story follows two revolutionaries as their journeys converge at an encampment between dimensions. Neptune escapes the societal rejection of their gender identity. After a violent attempted sexual assault by a priest, Neptune flees with just a red dress and high heels and slowly rebirths through the transition between two different actors playing the same role. Each is different gender but play maintains the emotional and physical continuity of Neptune’s release from the world’s norms. Neptune starts off as quiet and eventually evolves into a powerful being through their journey of self-discovery. The exploited coltan miner, Matalusa, witnesses the death of his brother in the quarries. His grieving time is cut short by his bosses and colonial European church remnants who force him to move on. Matalusa flees his oppressive life full of coltan mining.
Between the stories following its leads, the film detours into musical moments full of soft whispers, technology raps, and ballads about escaping the west. The dive into technology allows the costume and production design to take inspiration from leftover computers mixed with traditional East African wear. To establish the entering of other dimensions, cobbled-together hackers and cyborgs paint ideas of weaponization and rejection of western capitalism.
Strangely this film feels very grounded with its natural landscape. Based on my research ahead of time I was expecting it to get weird but it is reminiscent of a documentary in its filming style. It also feels like it is on the verge of a transformation into something explosive and abstract but never hits that note. The sci-fi aspect works well within the grounded universe. Involving crystal cellphones derived from exploited labor to emphasize our technology and its costly origins.
This performance of words and music evaluates the world around us in order to create better conditions for future generations of Black communities. It balances its desire for liberation amongst the people while also critiquing the corporate world that squanders free expression.