Two weasels wake up in an empty city before anyone else does. They lose each other, find each other again, and then the world arrives all at once. That small moment of quiet reunion, right before the noise starts, that's the entire film, and it holds everything.

Two weasels wander the quiet streets of a city on a cold, damp morning before sunrise. Somewhere along the way the pair are separated, leaving each one alone for a time. They manage to find each other again, and just as they do, bells and alarms start ringing across the city while dawn breaks. Before Dawn is a short slice-of-life film made as a 2022 graduate work in the animation department of the Tokyo University of the Arts graduate school of film and new media. With a minimal story, it offers a quiet, contemplative look at two small animals in the stillness of early morning.