Easter Eggs
2020 · 15m · Belgium
Directed by Nicolas Keppens
Genres: animation, coming-of-age, dark comedy
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, surreal
Two bored Belgian teenagers set out to catch escaped exotic birds from a local Chinese restaurant whose owner has mysteriously vanished, hoping to sell them for easy money. What begins as a petty adolescent scheme gradually exposes the toxic dynamics of their friendship and their uncertain place on the edge of adulthood.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Belgian teen bird-hunters in front of an abandoned Chinese restaurant — rooted in a real village suicide the director half-remembers. That biographical wound under absurdist animation is what makes it work.
Keppens roots adolescent bird-catching dark comedy in his own childhood memory — a baker's suicide and aviary escape — giving the absurdist register genuine emotional substrate. The Belgian animation tradition at its sharpest.
Rooted in the director's real village memory of a baker who died by suicide in his aviary with parrots never recovered — that biographical underlay gives an absurdist Belgian dark-comedy unfakeable emotional gravity. Victor Polster (Girl) in the cast is real animation-voice weight.
Reviews
Combining an accessible comic book aesthetic with an off-kilter vibe and excess of dark comedy, it’s easy to see why the 15-minute film impressed juries… there’s an unexpected tenderness to Keppens’ short that really heightens the film’s impact.
A coming-of-age story laced with bitter humour about two boys on an adolescent quest for some easy money and a better understanding of their place in the world.
Festivals
- Berlinale Shorts 2021
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2021, Jury Award
- Cinanima 2021, Grand Prix
- New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival 2021, Grand Prix for Short Films
- Anima Brussels Film Festival 2021, Best Belgian Film