Director: Ursula Meier
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 3.0
An abnormally intimate family (let's bathe together!) living next to a long-abandoned highway project have their lives altered when the government decides to complete the highway and suddenly, outside their window, thousands of cars go screaming by regularly, kicking up dirt and making a terrible amount of noise. I suppose establishing the family early on as being a collection of oddballs sets precedence so that when they opt against either (a.) moving or (b.) (justifiably) complaining to the authorities, they hunker down, at first tolerating the traffic and continuing with their routines (big sis loves to sunbathe) then becoming even stranger (the boy runs around with a snorkel, the youngest daughter thinks they're being poisoned by lead, the wife becomes more hysterical) and eventually lining their home with concrete blocks to muffle the outside sounds. I guess it works as a statement about the inevitability of technological progress - it should be noted the family relies on radio for news from the 'outside' and has seemingly resisted the likes of iPods, the Internet and so on - though the way they handle the problem is still hard to fathom, and when Dad opts to abandon the house and Mom and the kids refuse, it's idiotic stubbornness (especially since their mental health is being so flagrantly affected).
