Good Neighbours

Neighbors Ada and Wilma work as volunteers on a campaign run by Rotterdam city council to combat loneliness among the elderly. In 2013, a woman was found to have been lying dead in her home in the city for 10 years. Never again, the authorities decided. Together the women go from door to door, armed with a long questionnaire and looking for lonely old people. They meet Jan, a widower who has trouble walking. Tilly is still sprightly, but she too suffers from a lack of genuine contact, although she’d be the last one to admit it. As Wilma listens and Ada asks probing questions, they cut through the socially desirable answers and get to work.

Good Neighbours shows how two Dutch women with hearts of gold devote themselves unconditionally to helping others, bending the official rules when necessary. After Ada and Wilma have left, the camera lingers for a while in the homes of the elderly people. It’s then that the crushing loneliness shows its true face.