When filmmakers Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman created Neptune Frost, they imagined telling a limitless story that stretched the depths of time and place, while being representative of people across the Black diaspora. But also, like a Burundian elder told them during the filming process, it’s a story that’s more like a full circle.

“We told her the story of the film, thinking that we were telling something that was really modern and provocative,” Williams says. “And her response was, ‘That’s a very old Burundian folktale: We know this story, I know that story.’”

Although the heart of the story is traditional, the creators’ storytelling approach lands far from what is often seen. The film, which opened June 10 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, takes place in Burundi in east-central Africa. It’s a sci-fi, Afrofuturistic story that is also a musical that takes place in the past, present, and future, while also spanning the wide depths of identity and innovation.

That theme of expansive representation extends to the film’s language and music. Uzeyman, who is Rwandan, and Williams, who is American, worked as co-directors and collectively decided to create a film that would embody a meshing of language and culture. Characters speak in Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Swahili, French, and English—paired with English subtitles.

Read the full critique by Arionne Nettles here : https://chicagoreader.com/film/neptune-frost-is-limitless/