The Neighbors’ Window is an Oscar Winning short film that I recently watched on YouTube. It is written, directed & edited by Marshall Curry who is a four-time Oscar-nominated Filmmaker. It is a short film that gives a beautiful message that we often do not appreciate what we have, instead of it, we look towards other people and wish for their lives.
The Neighbors’ Window is about a couple who has two kids and the wife (Alli) is pregnant with the third child. They are tired by taking care of their kids and by doing all work. They are finding it hard to handle all pressure. One day, they just look up in front of their apartment and sees a young couple making love.
Firstly, they criticize that their neighbors did not pull curtains, etc, but soon they start peeking into it. Gradually, they start wishing of their lives that is all about parties and making love. While they have to do jobs and have to take care of three kids. Alli complains that they have to struggle daily, while this neighbor couple just does party and makes love.
One day, the wife notices that the husband of her neighbor is not well. She observes it with curiosity. After a while, she sees that the husband is dead and they are taking out their dead body. She gets anxious and cannot control herself.
She rushes towards her neighbor’s house and stands there for some moments. However, after a while, she gathers her courage and right before her inquiry about the neighbor’s husband’s death, her neighbor starts talking about how she and her husband used to peek into their house. (Alli’s house)
Alli neighbor explains that they are lucky to have children and it was always so satisfying to watch them taking care of their children. They always looked at them with admiration. She mentions their newborn and talks about the other two children that they all so beautiful.
The wife is shocked and realizes that they always complain about too much burden regarding their children. She always complained to her husband how she has to do an effort to take care of her children. She realizes that she always neglected those blessings that she has in the term of her children. Now they both start wishing for the life that their neighbors are living.
The short film ends with her positive attitude towards her family.
This oscar winning short film surely gives us the message that we always look towards other wealth because we think that is happiness and wealth, however it varies from person to person. Maybe the things you have are blessings for others and you are just neglecting and ignoring them.
One possibility is Alli’s neighbours could not conceive and they wished for children. While Alli on the other hand always wished for their love life. They were arranging house parties to relieve their stress and they also used to peek through the window into Alli’s house and wish for the children. Just like Alli and her husband thinks that their neighbours are lucky to have time for each other, their neighbours used to think that how lucky they are to have children.
After watching this oscar winning short film, we realize that while looking towards other beauty, other talents, other lifestyle and amid of all this, we forget to count our own blessings. Sometimes, we even start feeling jealousy by looking at the outer appearance or outer happiness and we do not have any idea about the struggle and pain of a person. We get jealous and feel envy of someone and we even assume things from others but the reality is sometimes totally opposite.
1 comment
nice