Rob Munday
I’m at a point in life where young love feels like a distant memory, so I deeply appreciate filmmakers who can capture that fleeting magic – when even the simple touch of a shoulder can send shivers down your spine. In Vivien Hárshegyi’s inventive and humorous short film Above the Clouds, we follow a young girl navigating the excitement of a new attraction while trying to let go of her first love.
Hárshegyi’s 12-minute animation opens with a smitten couple locked in a staring contest at the park, using relatable humor and an exaggerated animation style to instantly engage its audience. When the pink-haired protagonist suddenly bolts, after recognizing the familiar signs of love, we’re pulled into a flashback that sheds light on her reaction.
Young love blooms in the park in Vivien Hárshegyi’s Above the Clouds
The story of her first love unfolds in a surreal montage, with scenes of the couple dancing in a museum and at the zoo, set to an exaggerated love song by fellow animator Oliver Hegyi. As the music begins to break down, so does the couple’s dynamic, perfectly capturing the fading energy of their relationship. Those intense, all-consuming moments slowly give way to boredom and frustration – a feeling we’ve all experienced!
As their relationship unravels, the tone shifts from the earlier giddy infatuation to something darker and even more surreal. Once again, the film beautifully captures the emotions of the situation, this time the breakup, where dreams of a shared future can be shattered in an instant. It’s a comedic portrayal of heartache, but one that many of us can deeply relate to.
The magic of the relationship begins to wear off as one of the pair loses their energy.
For me, it’s this blend of relatability and comedy that makes Above the Clouds such a captivating watch. It’s a hilarious film (probably the funniest short I’ve seen in a while), but beneath the humour, you can feel the truth and pain. This sentiment was echoed by Hárshegyi herself in the Q&A accompanying the film’s launch as a Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere, where she explained the inspiration behind it:
“My main inspiration was the first real love I experienced that lasted too long for each of us […] After that experience I closed up, I became solid as a mountain and I hid my heart in the center of it. It was really hard for me to come out of my shell even if another person was in the picture by that time. I truly believed that relationships have the same script and I would get hurt again. The film is about that struggle.
If you’re as much of a fan of Above the Clouds as we are, you’ll be thrilled to hear that Hárshegyi is already working on her next short film, Margareth – the story of a young woman who distracts herself from the joy of life by creating her own dark reality.