Imaginary Dead End

Fábio travels the streets of Mouraria with the tension of someone who has to solve a problem that has no solution. When trying to pay off a debt with a client, forbidden and oppressed feelings rise up. And the problems grow denser.

The choices we make for ourselves are not always the right ones. Nor the ones we want. Other people's prejudices get mixed up with ours. Or rather, they become entrenched. It is at the crossroads of these apparently impossible states of life that Fabio, a young adult whose livelihood depends on small illicit businesses, finds himself forced to make a decision he did not want to take. Imaginary Dead End, the first Portuguese short film by French filmmaker Romano Cassellis, is a film of shrewd narrative control, and of right decisions. (Ana David)

Director's Bio

Born in Rome to French parents, Romano Cassellis grew up in New York and later Lisbon, where he finished high school. After a period in France where he studied film editing and cinema, worked as a film editor and wrote and directed amateur film school projects, he has settled in Mouraria, one of the Lisbon's oldest neighborhood, which inspired him to write his first Portuguese short film script. He works as a translator and writes new projects during his free time.