The Perfect Neighbor

A minor neighbourhood spat in Florida escalates over two years, with tragic consequences for a closeknit community and exposing America’s deep-rooted race issues and gun culture.

Ajike Owens, a working mother of four, lives in a close-knit Black majority community where neighbours look out for each other. A neighbour, a middle-aged white woman constantly angered by Ajike’s children playing outside, repeatedly calls the police over a two-year period, escalating a spat that simmers with racial tension. Despite frequent interventions, law enforcement fails to de-escalate the situation and prevent a tragedy that leaves Ajike’s young children, friends, relatives and community reeling. In her devastating debut, Geeta Gandhbir skilfully constructs a powerful and layered narrative that employs hours of police bodycam and interrogation footage to meticulously trace how an ordinary neighbourhood dispute spiralled into an avoidable tragedy. It’s a film that exposes a longstanding racial divide in the US and how the ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws disproportionately endanger Black communities.