THE FUTURE OF BLACK FILM

I haven’t seen any movies in Rwandan for a while. When’s the next one? Okay, you facetious fool. I think I know where we’re going here…

Er, sorry, just teeing you up to tell me about Neptune Frost.

Which is actually in a number of African languages.

Sounds complicated… Oh, it’s definitely everything everywhere. The main story involves an intersex runaway and an escaped miner who find each other through cosmic forces. Glitches within the divine circuitry follow… Reclaiming control of the mineral that powers mobile phones and attacks on Western binary ideas feature heavily, as does neon face-paint. Did I mention it’s also musical?

Jeez — deep, crazy shit. Indeed, I only understood about 23 per cent of it. But it doesn’t matter because it’s more like an ethereal, trippy dream. Dialogue is beautifully poetic (no surprise as director Saul Williams is a hip-hop poet) and the songs (multi-hyphenate Williams again) are gorgeous.

‘The future of Black cinema’ — that’s quite a claim. Is it? That’s what the posters say, not me. However, it would be a crime if the beguiling Cheryl Isheja, who plays Neptune, doesn’t have a brilliant future ahead of her. ‘Neptune Frost’ opens in cinemas on 4 Nov