Amid the pandemic, we visited the neighbours of a community full of gates where the only way to meet is through closed gates, intercoms or a WhatsApp group. A cheeky look at what makes us afraid of the other.
In Durban, South Africa, a neighbourhood resists the isolation imposed by the lockdown through a WhatsApp group, created to establish a collective surveillance network. What begins as a digital support network quickly turns into a platform for unrelated chatter, hate speech and conspiracy theories, particularly concerning their common enemy: a species of small primates, the Vervet monkeys. In this humorous documentary, the director tries to get to know his neighbour in a community of tiny fortresses where their kings and queens speak, and lurk, behind intercoms. (Joana Mosi)
