DREAMING OF LIONS

A dark surreal comedy about euthanasia and assisted suicide. In Lisbon, Portugal - where euthanasia is still not legal - Gilda and Amadeu meet and fall in love through an underground organization that claims to help the terminally ill kill themselves painlessly. They go on a last wild and surreal adventure to Belgium to finalize their plans, but a secret awaits them that threatens to change everything.

Paolo Marinou-Blanco is a Portuguese and Greek screenwriter, director & producer, with a B.A. from the London School of Economics, an MA in Literature from University College London, and an MFA in Film and TV from NYU. After an internship with Spike Lee, Paolo wrote and directed his 1st feature “Goodnight Irene”, which screened at Edinburgh, Tallinn, Dublin, Valencia and over 30 festivals worldwide. Paolo also works as a screenwriter in the US (as a WGA member), Portugal and Brazil. His 2nd feature as writer/director/coproducer, “Dreaming of Lions”, was selected for MFI Script 2 Film and Torino Film Lab (Comedy Lab), and has won production funding from Portugal.

Production company and producer:
Promenade is a film and audiovisual production company based in Lisbon, Portugal. The CEO and founder, Justin Amorim, was born in Toronto and moved to Southern Portugal during his childhood. Holds a bachelor degree in Fine Arts in Film & Video by the School Of Visual Arts in New York. His professional background includes companies such as Tribeca Film Institute & Festival, Elle Magazine, August Man, BlackBook and Wilhelmina Models NY. Produced and directed his first feature film Leviano (2018) which premiered theatrically in Portugal and internationally at the Thessaloniki IFF. His next fiction TV series 5Starz for RTP will premiere in late 2021.