---

Neptune (Elvis Ngabo, then Cheryl Isheja) is an intersex drifter searching for acceptance. Matalusa (Kaya Free) is a deeply disillusioned coltan miner mourning the brutal killing of his brother by a callous employer. These 20-somethings live on opposite sides of Burundi; they’re brought together, like long-lost twin souls, not by conventional correspondence but their dreams. 

Neptune Frost is set in a future where phones are shaped like hexagons and technology in general is more insidiously inescapable than ever. A totalitarian government known only as The Authority keeps everyone in check, with a literal and digital manpower leaving few spaces unmonitored by its eyes or untouched by its hands. In the middle of Neptune Frost, Neptune and Matalusa come upon some isolated land inhabited by a hacker collective looking to lay waste to the status quo. Strengthened by each other and their new community, the duo uncovers both new senses of self and a determination to dismantle the oppressive societal mores preventing them from reaching their full potential. 

Read the full column on 425.