The Man Next Door

Synopsis

Leonardo is a distinguished and important industrial designer, who lives with his wife Ana, his daughter Lola, and the maid Elba, in the only house that the great Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier built in the American continent, located in the city of La Plata, Argentina. Thanks to a unique chair that is praised and admired worldwide, Leonardo has gained great recognition and respect as an industrial designer.

One morning, the rutine and tranquility of his house is interrupted by the loud noise generated by a construction jo started at a house next door. A neighbor pretends to build an illegal window in the common wall between their houses that looks into Leonardo´s home. Víctor, the neighbor, is a strange and outgoing character. His extremely friendly and at the same time very threatening personality generates a strong feeling of rejection in Leonardo, while also a sense of unmanageable submissiveness.

The incident starts overtaking all of Leonardo´s time and interest, spinning him away from his daily work and family responsibilities. The consequences of this growing obsession start affecting his job, his family and his personality. Having to deal with his wife constant pressure, and Victor´s broken promises of stopping the construction of the window, Leonardo starts to crumble. Until finally one day, a fortuitous event presents a controversial solution to the problem.

The Curutchet House

The film was entirely shot at the Casa Curutchet, the only residential house designed and built by the genius Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier in the American continent. It is building located in the city of La Plata, a few kilometers South of Buenos Aires, erected between 1949 and 1955, and it is recognized as a masterpiece in the world of architecture.

The selection of this design icon as a location for the fillm, gives it not only a unique artistic quality, defined by the context and unique angles obtained through the camera placement, but also because the house itself becomes a main actor in the story narrated by the film.
Los Directores, Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn
Directors: Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn

In the field of the cinema and experimental video they have realized more than twenty works that have been seen in art saloons and museums of the whole world. Many of them have been rewarded nationally and internationally. Some of the titles are: Cámara de sombra (1990), Circuito (1993), Venimos Llenos de Tierra (1996), Hectárea (1998), Soy Francisco López (2000), 20/12 (2001) and Hágalo Usted Mismo (2002).

In the television field they designed conceptual and innovative formats like Televisión Abierta (1999), Cupido (2000), Cuentos de Terror (2001), Navegando con Fede (2002), and El Amante Tv (2007), among others. They founded the cultural tv channel Ciudad Abierta (2003), where they developed new concepts as for massive communication. Many of these formats have been copied and sold in diverse parts of the world.

In the area of the full-lenght film they’ve directed multiwinning Enciclopedia (1998), Yo Presidente (2006) documentary film that obtained the First Prize in the International Festival of Cinema Independent from Mexico and the Best Prize Documentary Movie in the Festival Of Malaga, and y El Artista (2008) winning of the Best Prize Movie and Better Script in the International Festival of of Bursa Turkey, Prize of the Public in Toulouse, and the Best Prize of novel directors in Lleida’s (Spain) Film Festival.

El hombre de al lado (2009), their last winning film of the First Prize Argentinean film in 24 º Mar del Plata Film Festival, and recently selected to compete in the World Cinema Competition Sundance. Nowadays they are writing their next film, of tentative tilte The Great Script that will be shooted in 2010, led by the actress Graciela Borges

Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6qPT7EF0QM&feature=related