Tenants, The

Despite a recent wave of violent crime in the city, manual laborer and night student Valter lives a relatively content life with his family in working-class São Paulo. But when three young criminals move in next door, a bunker mentality sets in and Valter soon discovers he is not the only one perversely affected by the mounting chaos of a city under siege, or the unsettling presence of his new neighbors.

Building tension throughout with stylish sequences that blend reality and fevered imagination, Sérgio Bianchi’s gripping domestic thriller offers a shrewd portrait of the social and psychological impact of urban violence, depicting a community beset yet also aroused by a permeating atmosphere of destruction.

Sérgio Bianchi was born in Ponta Grossa, Paraná, Brazil, in 1945. A resident of São Paulo since 1968, he graduated from the Communications and Arts School at the University of São Paulo and began his career in film and photography in 1972. In addition to several short films, his features include Romance, The Secret Cause and Chronically Unfeasible.