Neighbouring Sounds

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.