The film opens with several still images - of a countryside, a family, and man talking to an old woman, a woman in cultural clothing, a group of villagers, a hill and pasture, an estate, from two angles, farmers working, and young women. A young boy bicycles while a young girl rollerblades through a parking lot to a public area where many children are playing. A young man and woman kiss in the corner of a yard. Two cars nearly collide at an intersection.
Part 1: Guard Dogs
Beatriz Linhares is a middle-aged married housewife with two young children (the two in the prologue), Fernanda and Nelsinho, living in a middle-class neighborhood in Recife, Brazil. One night, unable to sleep due to a dog’s barking, she drugs it; by morning, it is lying on the ground, unable to bark or stand up. João is a young man from a prominent family in the neighborhood working as a real estate agent; the night before, he had just met and slept with a young woman named Sofia, who used to live on their street. As they exit his apartment, they discover that Sofia’s car has been broken into and the CD player stolen. João suspects that the culprit is Dinho, his cousin and a regular car thief.
While visiting at his uncle’s, Anco’s, they are approached by Clodoaldo, a man representing an independent private security firm looking to do business with families on the street. Anco and João are not interested, but do not outright refuse their services. João visits Dinho, who is infuriated by João’s insinuation that he is the thief, but as João is about to leave, he hands him a CD player. While Beatriz's children are at English class, a man arrives to deliver water and pot to her. After he leaves, she masturbates to the rumbling sound of the washing machine.
Clodoaldo and his coworker, the one-eyed Fernando, pay Francisco, João and Dinho’s grandfather, Anco’s father, and the owner of half of the property in the area, a visit, to receive his blessing to start work in the neighborhood. Francisco blesses them, tells them that he only lives in the area, and requests that they do not do business with Dinho, who has been upsetting Anco. After the men leave, Francisco calls João, who tells him that he is worried about Dinho.
Part 2: Night Guards
Some time later, Beatriz and her family express their disappointment over the security men, who allowed two car CD players to be stolen just the night before and generally come off as trying to create problems so they can step in to solve them.
At a condominium meeting, a group of residents argue that their night watchman is becoming negligent in his duties and should be fired without severance pay; João is the sole dissenter who believes that in light of his years of service, the man should receive severance pay, but the others do not take his opinion seriously and he leaves. He meets Sofia and the two go to his room; unbeknownst to them, as they make out in the elevator, they are being watched by the night watchman through the surveillance camera. After sex, João hands Sofia the CD player, but she claims that it is not hers. João tells her that they can visit the house that she briefly lived in 20 ago; upon learning that Francisco used to own the entire area, Sofia reasons that João is rich and casually suggests marriage.
Beatriz is once again disturbed by dog barks at night. Meanwhile, Francisco goes to the beach nearby to swim alone, despite warnings of sharks. As he returns safely, Clodoaldo calls Dinho from a pay phone, threatening to kill him if he burgles another car. Dinho soon arrives and threatens to retaliate if he discovers that it was the security men who called him.
Part 3: Bodyguards
Francisco, João, and Sofia go to a house in the countryside. Over lunch, they discuss marriage; Sofia admits to not being sure yet. Afterwards, the couple visit an abandoned cinema and the three soak under a waterfall. Back in Recife, Clodoaldo tells his men that he will have to leave for some time to run errands for his brother Claudio, who has just arrived in the area. Luciene, a house worker in Francisco’s house, leaves to take his clothes to the dry cleaners; along the way, she meets her boyfriend - Clodoaldo. A resident is out of town and gave Clodoaldo the keys, so they go into his house to have sex, despite constant telephone ringing. A young boy suddenly walks by the bedroom, but he does not seem to take notice of the couple, nor them of him.
João and Sofia visit the house she used to live in; as she revisits the rooms, she appears lost among her memories. Francisco calls Clodoaldo’s security firm, but nobody picks up. Beatriz leaves to buy firecrackers.
Anco hosts a party for his niece’s 13th birthday. There, João reveals to Dinho that he and Sofia have broken up, and muses on the charm of having large families. After the party, Francisco finds Clodoaldo and tells him to go to his apartment. He arrives with Claudio, to Francisco’s disapproval, but he allows him to stay. Francisco tells them that Reginaldo, a man who worked for him for many years, has been murdered, so he wants them to provide him with some extra security; however, when Clodoaldo and Claudio ask Francisco whether he believes he has any connection to the killing, Francisco refuses to answer. Claudio then tells Francisco that they’d just seen Reginaldo and reveals to him that they are the sons of Antonio and nephews of Everett; while the film never specifies, it is implied that decades earlier, Francisco killed them. Upon this revelation, all three men stand up.
Epilogue
Beatriz returns with the firecrackers; upon them being lit, the entire family scrambles to watch them from a distance. The loud noises puncture the quiet of the night and arouse the dog. The film ends with a freeze frame - of Beatriz, her husband, and Fernanda gathered together, looking at the fireworks while some paces away, a cowering Nelsinho looks away, his hands over his ears.
Neighboring Sounds is the first fiction feature film from director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who had previously directed the documentary Critical. Recife and Zona da Mata in Pernambuco serve as a backdrop for the dialogue of the actors, being recorded in July and August 2010 for 6 weeks and 3 days.[6] The period of editing the film took two years to complete, and also a long time to hit Brazilian theaters, just released nationally on January 4, 2013, with distribution by Vitrine Filmes. Written in 2008, the screenplay was awarded by the Hubert Bals Fund, from Rotterdam Film Festival, where the film made its world premiere. The screenplay was also awarded in bidding by Petrobras and the Government of Pernambuco.[7]
Reception
Critical response
One of the most acclaimed Brazilian films in 2012, Neighbouring Sounds received overwhelmingly positive reviews. Neighboring Sounds has an approval rating of 93% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 42 reviews, and an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus states: "An outstanding feature debut for director Kleber Mendonça Filho, Neighbouring Sounds takes a delightfully dark -- and wholly absorbing -- look at human nature".[8]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generaly favorable reviews".[9]
Critic A. O. Scott from The New York Times names as one of the world's top 10 movies made in 2012.[2]Caetano Veloso, in his column in the newspaper O Globo, called it "one of the best films made recently in the world."[10] Robert Abele from Los Angeles Times emphasizes it as "remarkable" and "breathtaking".[11] Tom Dawson of Total Film gave it four of five stars, saying that Filho "reveals a society haunted by both its past and by the threat of future violence",[12] while David Parkinson from Empire also praises the director, calling his film "a hugely impressive debut feature".[13]
President of BrazilDilma Rousseff, in her Twitter account, said to be happy with the film's submission to the 86th Academy Awards, stating it's a "beautiful film".[14] The president also recommended Neighbouring Sounds to her followers, considering the film "a chronicle of today's Recife".[15]
