Directed by Rolf De Heer
At one time, Rolf De Heer was living in a peaceful suburban street when new people moved into the house next door and it became ‘an amphetamine-fuelled hell for the neighbourhood that lasted almost three years’. Nothing could be done about the disruption to the peaceful days and nights. The police were powerless and the legal system was costly and just as ineffective. Eventually ideas began to form in his head about how to remove the neighbour from hell. These fantasies, along with memories from previous neighbours of the many houses he has inhabited, form the basis for this dark but hilarious film.
Science teacher Max (Dan Wyllie) and tax accountant Therese (Bojana Novakovic) fall in love with a house for sale in a quiet neighbourhood and buy it. The neighbours on one side are so friendly that they cut a gate in the fence for easy access. On the other side, King (Gary Waddell) and his regular visitors seem like ‘interesting’ characters but things go from interesting to intolerable in a very short period of time. The only solutions seem to be to buy earplugs or to sell their house, but Max and Therese devise a sneaky solution to their problem.
Interestingly, De Heer’s troublesome neighbours did move out but he decided to sell the house anyway. Before he did, he used it as the set for his low budget film and it became a neighbourly affair. He used the houses of the neighbours on both sides as well, though he did have to dress down one of the houses and use a set for the inside. Coincidently the owner of the good neighbour’s house was a chef, so he did the catering for the film shoot and opened up his carport and side of the house for the cast and crew to relax.
