Acclaimed director John Hillcoat returns to music videos to helm a timely and politically-charged promo for experimental artist Sleepie Louie. 

The video for MyNeighborsACop is a dark satire set in suburban Los Angeles, shot in stark black and white with bursts of vivid colour. Things become more surreal as it builds, but with the sense that this horrifying scenario is becoming reality before our eyes.

It's an uncomfortable yet powerful visual from Hillcoat, the director of acclaimed movies such as The Proposition and The Road, returning to the medium worked very successfully in the Nineties and early Noughties, particularly with his old friend Nick Cave.  

"The video follows a deeply paranoid, hyper-militarized cop unraveling inside his nearly empty home," he explains. "He moves through obsessive rituals with weapons, surveillance footage, racist and patriotic symbols, convinced that danger surrounds him. Fascistic impulses have arisen within him.

"Next door, rapper Sleepie Louie and his community simply live, make music, and gather together. Their presence fuels the cop’s escalating fantasies of threat and control. As his paranoia intensifies into hallucinations of monumental police idols and militarized glory, the line between reality and delusion collapses."