In The Upper Room
2022 · 8m · Hungary
Directed by Alexander Gratzer
Genres: animation, coming-of-age, family
Tones: contemplative, mythic, tender
Every season a young mole visits his blind grandfather deep underground; as the two grow older their relationship deepens and important questions arise.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a handmade fable that could've been saccharine garbage, but Gratzer resists sentiment at every turn—the blindness becomes a formal constraint that reshapes what cinema can show, and the result is genuinely strange in ways most 'family' films wouldn't dare attempt.
A masterclass in animated restraint and temporal architecture; the seasonal structure echoes everything from *Grave of the Fireflies* to Takahata's sensitivity to natural cycles, and Gratzer's deliberate compositional choices transform a simple premise into something that feels both timeless and formally deliberate.
The decision to animate the grandfather's perspective—what he cannot see but somehow knows—through negative space and sound design rather than visual explanation is the film's spine; it's a technical choice that costs nothing but justifies the entire 8 minutes.
Reviews
The story is told in metaphorical images and gives an example of how wonderful and strong a relationship between people can be, no matter what physical disabilities or hurdles are present.