Dreaming of Lions (Sonhar com Leões) is the latest film by Paolo Marinou-Blanco, a Portuguese director who seems to have spent most of his career in Anglo-Saxon territories. It was the opening film in the Critics’ Picks Competition of the Black Nights Film Festival. Initially, we are introduced to Gilda (Denise Fraga), who is terminally ill. Her only wish is to die without pain, but all her suicide attempts fail. Some would label those failures comical. I have no idea why. Eventually, she opts for professional help and finds the organisation Joy Transition International, which offers training in how to die without pain. Once there, she is confronted by a trio presenting the product.
Product is the operative word since it is soon all too clear that this is a business masquerading as a do-goodery, like so many other associations in today’s society. Whether any of the three believes in what they are selling might have been an interesting question in another film, but it doesn’t matter much here. During an exercise, Gilda is paired with the younger Amadeu, who works in a funeral parlour. They gradually get to like each other, and both are equally disappointed when Joy Transition International fails to deliver on its promise. However intense that disappointment might be, it is nothing compared to what this spectator felt while enduring the film.
Dreaming of Lions is only one of several weird selections in a section that last year included highlights such as Kálmán’s Day1.Kálmán’s Day was the second part of a trilogy by Szabolcz Hajdu. This year, he concluded the trilogy, but strangely enough, it was not screened at PÖFF even though they screened the first two. An explanation could be found in a Cineuropa interview with the curator, who literally said that he only wanted genre films this year, even rejecting the arthouse concept altogether. When festivals worldwide become more bland and mainstream, it is discouraging to see someone openly stating that he will not programme ” demanding, black and white, and depressing films”.
In lieu of that, he described this year’s selection as “wonderfully colourful, diverse, surreal, action-packed and extremely funny.” He also used the dreaded term “cross-over films” and expressed hope that they could reach a wide audience. The arthouse aspect of the films, he claims, derives from the fact that they are not in English. This reasoning rhymes with the often-used phrase “smarthouse”, which is little more than mainstream films with the thinnest veneer of arthouse cover. The fact that PÖFF has previously been a festival for films that struggle to find a home anywhere else makes this year’s edition even more disheartening.
Dreaming of Lions in the way
Going back to the film, it boasts exactly one great visual idea. The literal happy face that the participants in the training are obliged to put on. Is it enough to carry an entire film? Obviously not. Dreaming of Lions is little more than a loud and obnoxiously clumsy comedy. The satirical moments are reminiscent of the king of insipid smarthouse, Lanthimos, not least The Lobster. A Portuguese film that came to my mind was the normally reliable João Botelho’s The Woman Who Believed She Was President of the United States (A Mulher que Acreditava Ser Presidente Dos EUA 2003). The director seems to believe that excessive shouting and gesticulating will bring levity to a sombre topic—no such luck.
If someone had told me in Venice that there would be a worse film about euthanasia this year than The Room Next Door, I would have laughed. I am not laughing now. There is nothing to recommend about Dreaming Of Lions unless you like your films non-challenging and non-entertaining simultaneously. Regarding the Critics’ Picks section, it should be said that the strand also housed Dechen Roder’s excellent I, the Song.
