A sweltering summer forces the city of Brussels into idleness. Ilias, like many others, sleeps through most of his day. He languidly strings together the days and nights, scrolling on his phone and playing soccer with his friends. To this young adult, life seems to pass by in a blur until the day he has a strange encounter with a horse during a walk along the canal.

As a plot point, it is almost absurd, but in the hands of filmmaker Enzo Smits, the encounter becomes a metaphor for tranquility in an environment where it is rarely found. Protagonist Ilias understands his mission and decides, without batting an eyelid, to take care of his new four-legged friend. Their quiet walks, captured by director of photography Grimm Vandekerckhove, have a gloomy aesthetic. Street lights illuminate the night, while the city noise gradually drowns out of the soundtrack. Nature ripples into the frames, wordlessly coaxing Ilias out of his concrete jungle and casually seeking his surrender.

Smits, an alumnus of LUCA Schools of Arts who stuck around in Brussels after graduation, told local media channel BRUZZ a few years back that his inspiration comes from just hanging around: “Nothing is going on, but a lot could happen,” which is also the feeling expressed in his graduation film All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. That same mantra underlies It Won't Be Long Now as well. The short film, made for Belgian TV station VRT CANVAS in 2016, follows a couple of teenagers hanging around on their scooters. Today, five years later, Smits’ penchant for loitering doesn’t seem to have faded, although an underlying urban storyline has now amplified the quietness.

Ilias’ friends suggest that he cools down at the seaside. Brussels has few beaches or outdoor pools to offer on hot summer days, so young people seek them outside the city. Unfortunately, skirmishes often arise on the packed trains and public transportation, and take centre stage in the public debate each summer. These elements add tension to the film’s fabric, cleverly integrated into a poignant scene where Ilias asks for water for his horse in a local bar full of (white) regulars.

The film’s characters are all desperate for relief but don't seem to grant it to one another. This is driven by selfishness: We appropriate nature for ourselves and complain when others gain access to something that was never ours. Ilias isn’t immune to this greed, as he becomes terrified of losing a horse that does not belong to him. He considers the animal his ticket out of the city. Daysleeper captures the paradox where the need for and the lack of peace collide.