124 mins | Kleber Mendoça Filho | Brazil | 2012 | M sex scenes, offensive language & drug use
A history of violence and oppression threatens to engulf the residents of an affluent seaside community in Neighboring Sounds, a thrilling debut from filmmaker Kleber Mendonca Filho. A palpable sense of unease hangs over a single city block in the coastal town of Recife, Brazil. Home to prosperous families and the servants who work for them, the area is ruled by an aging patriarch and his sons.
When a private security firm is reluctantly brought in to protect the residents from a recent spate of petty crime, it unleashes the fears, anxieties and resentments of a divided society still haunted by its troubled past.
“The mastery of pacing, theme and stylistic eccentricity throughout… is so assured as to be breathtaking.” – Film Comment