UPPER
2024 · 15m · Belgium
Directed by Lennert Madou
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, surreal, whimsical
Two bored friends wander through remote, abandoned landscapes while waiting for an asteroid to pass through the sky the following evening — one obsessively tries to climb ever higher toward it, the other playfully awaits the cosmic spectacle.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Two bored kids climbing higher and higher in abandoned landscapes waiting for an asteroid — Beasts of the Southern Wild comparisons feel inflated for a Belgian teaser with 42 views. Could be the rare lyrical drift that works; could be exactly as adrift as it sounds.
Two friends physically climbing landscapes toward an approaching asteroid is a beautiful literalization of youthful longing — Belgian cinema's continuing strength in the surreal-tender mode. The 42-view teaser is meager evidence, but the premise is exact.
Fifteen minutes of two friends literally climbing through abandoned landscapes to reach a passing asteroid — making the cosmic-aspiration metaphor a physical, absurdist action — is a structural risk that needs the right kid performances to land. Only 42 views on the teaser and a thin page makes the actual execution hard to verify.
Reviews
Poetic, mystery-filled, matching childhood curiosity with a high degree of abandon and the great unknown.
Enigmatic, mysterious and poetic.
Lennert Madou succeeds in presenting an aesthetic metaphor in an original way — both poetic subtlety and daring in this visually beautiful short film.
Lennert Madou shows his photographic eye without missing one detail, and tells a story in a very beautiful and subtle way. His creations are akin to poetry with each image evoking a dreamlike world.
Festivals
- Film Fest Gent 2024
- Kort Film Festival 2024
- Sundance Film Festival 2025
- Ensors 2025, Best Short Film
- Message to Man International Film Festival 2025
- NTU Movie Festival 2025