2012 New Talent Grand PIX winner

Saturday night on the 28th of April, the international jury at CPH PIX selected Brazilian Kleber Mendonça Filho as the most promising talent among the ten competing first-time directors in the main competition.

The jury consisting of Mia Hansen-Løve from France, Matthias Glasner from Germany and Anurag Kashyap from India emphasized the formal qualities of 'Neighbouring Sounds'. But they also stressed the feeling of personal insight into contemporary Brazil and the nuanced depiction of the people in the town of Recife, where the director also lives. Even though the story is simple and often funny, the jury feels that the movie has a strong feeling of authenticity and honesty.

The New Talent Grand PIX comes with a prize of 30.000 Euro to help the director make his next movie.

About the film:

The global middle class' fears of social unrest and violence are dissected with surgical precision in the Brazilian filmmaker, Kleber Mendonça Filho's neighbourhood drama, which, like a Western, takes place in a single street, with a private security guard taking on a double role as both a good cop and a bad cop.

The setting is the medium-sized Recife, where the jack-of-all-trades, Filho himself lives and works as a director, producer, festival organiser and film critic. The plot revolves around a wealthy man, who owns and rents out most of the street's buildings, and Bia, a housewife with two small children, who is kept awake at night by the furious barking of her neighbour's dog.

But is it still called paranoia, when everyone's afraid? And if not, what else do you call it? Filho's almost architectural image and sound design creates a claustrophobic world, which is both local and universal. Unfortunately.