“The Perfect Neighbor”: When an ordinary conflict turns into tragedy

Since October 2025, the Netflix documentary The Perfect Neighbor has been moving audiences with its powerful depiction of how a simple disagreement between neighbors can escalate—slowly but surely—into tragedy.
Winner of several awards, including at the Sundance Film Festival 2025 and the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, the film highlights how crucial dialogue and mutual understanding are, long before tensions boil over.

As Tânia Gazzola, Head of the Geneva Judicial Mediation Office, so aptly puts it:

“The documentary The Perfect Neighbor, available on Netflix in Switzerland since October 17, 2025, and multiple award-winner — including at the Sundance Film Festival 2025 and the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards — shows how an ordinary dispute between neighbors can, without dialogue, slowly escalate… until the irreparable happens.
This film is deeply moving in its accuracy: it shows what becomes of a disagreement when there is no space for dialogue, when fear and mistrust replace words.
No conflict is born violent.
It’s misunderstanding, lack of listening, and loss of connection that turn everyday life into a battlefield.
Mediation is exactly that: creating a space before it’s too late.
Giving people the chance to talk, to recognize one another, to hear the other’s perspective before the conflict takes root or spirals out of control.
Neighborhood disputes are never ‘small conflicts.’
They affect intimacy, safety, and the feeling of being respected in one’s own home.
👉 Promoting mediation means promoting social peace — in our buildings, our streets, our neighborhoods, our cities, our schools…”

🔗 Link to documentary