{"status":"success","siteTitle":"Assisted Lab\nLiving Archive of Assisted Dying","title":"\u2018Sonhar com Le\u00f5es\u2019 by Paolo Marinou-Blanco","slug":"sonhar-com-leoes","url":"https:\/\/assistedlab.ch\/visual\/sonhar-com-leoes","body":"

Gilda, the protagonist of Sonhar com Le\u00f5es<\/em> (Dreaming of Lions), has attempted suicide multiple times \u2013 and failed. She has an inoperable spinal-cord cancer and wants to die, as she puts it, \u2018before becoming a lump of meat\u2019 (translated from the Portuguese as all other quotes, unless noted otherwise). She fears the pain of a violent suicide as much as she fears surviving only to become incapacitated and in greater pain\u2026 And hence her hesitating attempts, such as the one with which the movie opens: Gilda, with a revolver trained on her head, is about to pull the trigger when she is surprised by her husband, so the shot accidentally hits both and fails to kill either (at some point, Gilda\u2019s husband tires of her attempts and leaves her). But Gilda also dreads dying \u2018naturally\u2019, in excruciating pain \u2013 like her father, who withered away from pancreatic cancer in Brazil. Through a flashback, the film shows us how a pre-teen Gilda witnessed relatives visiting her moribund father and performing what Gilda came to see as selfishness: the military uncle urging \u2018fight!\u2019, the aunt praying for a miracle, the cousin bringing food yet saying nobody thanked her\u2026 Only Gilda recognizes the finality of her father\u2019s illness and resolves that, when her time comes, she will die her way. Leaving the hospital after her latest attempt, Gilda finds a flyer for Joy Transition International<\/em>, a dubious association that teaches the terminally ill about the best ways to commit suicide. Their motto: \u2018Our life, our death\u2019. The cost: only 400 Euros. Gilda senses a scam, but signs up anyway. Her grumpy no-nonsense demeanour clashes with the cruel optimism of the workshop leaders, who facilitate sessions that go from informative (suicide-failure statistics) to performative (how to match your inner and outer smiles). When Gilda resists putting on an oversized-smile mask, a facilitator explains \u2018it\u2019s for legal reasons\u2026 if we\u2019re caught, we can say we\u2019re putting on a play\u2019. During a buddy-system activity, Gilda meets the younger Amadeu, who also wants to die \u2013 but for a different reason, which becomes a key counterpoint in the film. Amadeu, who can talk with the dead, works at a funerary, where he applies makeup to the deceased, finishes their coffins, and asks them what death is like. When it becomes evident that Joy Transition <\/em>won\u2019t provide the peaceful death advertised, Gilda takes matters into her own hands, with Amadeu in tow. First, they try to rob sodium pentobarbital from a vet clinic; then, they bribe a workshop leader to connect them with a doctor willing to help non-residents in Spain, where euthanasia is legal. It is in Spain that the fates of Gilda and Amadeu diverge, bringing the film to a close while establishing a clear distinction between assisted dying and suicidal ideation.<\/p>

The Brazilian lawyer Cynthia Ara\u00fajo, author of a book on difficult healthcare conversations, has called the film an \u2018anti-Werther\u2019 work of art, because it deglamourizes suicide. By pitting Amadeu\u2019s suicide ideations against Gilda\u2019s compelling will to live and die with dignity, Ara\u00fajo argues the film follows the World Health Organization<\/em>\u2019s directive that art should not glamourize suicide. Multiple critics have noted the productive dissonance between form and content in Sonhar com Le\u00f5es<\/em>. According to an Expresso<\/em> critic, the film manages to talk about the right-to-die and<\/em> be funny, while a contributor to Dirty Movies<\/em> underscores how it is unafraid to confront a taboo, plunging straight in with Gilda\u2019s double shooting. In interviews, the director Marinou-Blanco explained he uses comedy \u2018because it softens life\u2019s hard edges\u2019 (in Deadline Hollywood<\/em>, originally in English) and because \u2018drama would have been too obvious\u2019, while \u2018comedy can be an act of courage\u2019 (in Dizer Podcast<\/em>). El Pa\u00eds<\/em> adds that, on top of the \u2018uncomfortable humour\u2019, <\/em>the film gains an extra confrontational dimension when Gilda breaks the fourth wall to directly challenge the viewers (a metalingual strategy popularized by TV series like Fleabag<\/em>). In one particularly striking scene, Gilda dares us not<\/em> to turn away: \u2018This is the part you don\u2019t want to see, right? You want to ignore? Look! Take a good long [expletive] look!\u2019. Thus, more than a postmodernist artifice, piercing the fourth wall through humour to confront death \u2013 and our avoidance of death \u2013 serves a central function. As the Cinem\u00e1tico<\/em> critics highlight, this is also a way for Gilda to regain narrative control over a rogue illness. Even though there is a linear aspect to Gilda\u2019s pursuit of a peaceful death, the story develops as a spiral, with abundant repetitions: suicide attempts, cringe workshops, Amadeu\u2019s questioning of the dead, the singing of Caymmi\u2019s \u2018Maracangalha\u2019\u2026 These elements appear and reappear, as in a modern fable spiralling out in search of resolution. The last two of these recurring elements are perhaps the most rich, as their final iterations change the initial meanings: when Amadeu fails to ask Gilda what death looks like, we understand he has gained a will to live; and when the carnival song \u2018Maracangalha\u2019 reemerges at the end of the film, its lyrics become a commentary on the diverging fates of Gilda and Amadeu (\u2018I\u2019ll go to Maracangalha, I\u2019ll go\u2026 And if An\u00e1lia won\u2019t come with me, I\u2019ll go alone\u2019). Another text evoked is The old man and the sea<\/em>, that gives the film its title: in bed, Gilda reads to Amadeu a passage in which the titular \u2018old man\u2019 dreams of lions on an African beach, a peaceful scene he witnessed in his youth.<\/p>

The three countries that co-produced the film \u2013 Portugal, Brazil, and Spain \u2013 are present in the story in more than one way. First, the characters\u2019 accents help situate us: Gilda and her husband are the only ones with a Brazilian accent among speakers of European Portuguese, therefore we must be in Portugal; later, as Amadeu and Gilda travel to Mallorca, they carry their own accents into Spanish. These languages let us glimpse three very different legal landscapes, as well as the inequalities they engender. As a Brazilian immigrant in Portugal, Gilda has no access to legal assisted dying; the practice remains strictly banned in Brazil, and Portugal\u2019s 2023 assisted-dying bill was under parliamentary debate when the film began production. In the movie\u2019s timeline, only Spain had an operational law regulating euthanasia, effective since 2021 (see related entry on Gina Montaner\u2019s memoir). Portugal did approve its law decriminalizing and regulating assisted dying in 2023 (see related entry on Jos\u00e9 Saramago\u2019s novel), but the legislative process was carried out without presidential support; Ministerial regulations were never drafted, so the law\u2019s application was suspended. Then, in 2025, the Constitutional Court deemed various articles of the 2023 law unconstitutional, freezing the planned reform \u2013 with the Judicial and Executive powers now sided against the Legislative. This legal vacuum validated the movie\u2019s premise of access to assisted dying being a rare privilege, which resonated with the public in Portugal and beyond. The film won the 2026 Sophia Award for Best Comedy Feature at the Portuguese Film Academy Awards, and was widely promoted in Spain by the Derecho a Morir Dignamente<\/em> foundation. At some point in Sonhar com Le\u00f5es<\/em>, Gilda applies for financial aid to die in Switzerland (rejected), then considers the residential requirements in Holland and Belgium (unrealistic for her), and concludes: \u2018It\u2019s death by bureaucracy\u2019. When Gilda finally gets a promising tip about a Spanish doctor willing to bend bureaucracies, we can\u2019t help but feel the film is as much about dying as it is about immigration: depending on our passports, we need expensive visas \u2013 and sometimes illegal coyotes \u2013 for the final border-crossing.<\/p>","cover":{"ratio":1.5654300856094578,"url":"https:\/\/assistedlab.ch\/media\/pages\/visual\/sonhar-com-leoes\/72ce94a978-1781966147\/rousseau-1897-la_bohe-mienne_endormie-2410x-q90.jpg","caption":"Henri Rousseau, \u2018La Boh\u00e9mienne endormie\u2019, 1897"},"data":[{"title":"Title","value":"\u2018Sonhar com Le\u00f5es\u2019 by Paolo Marinou-Blanco"},{"title":"Author","value":"Paolo Marinou-Blanco (director)"},{"title":"Year","value":"2024"},{"title":"Language","value":"Portuguese"},{"title":"Language","value":"Spanish"},{"title":"Tags","value":"Privilege and Access \u2022 Means for Assisted Dying \u2022 Suicide Tourism \u2022 Feature Film"},{"title":"Legislative context","value":"Constitutional Court\u2019s judgement declaring the unconstitutionality of various articles of law no. 22\/2023, 2025 (Portugal) \u2022 Law decriminalizing and regulating assisted dying (Lei n.\u00ba 22\/2023), 2023 (Portugal) \u2022 Organic Law 3\/2021 regulating euthanasia, 24 March 2021 (Spain) \u2022 Ministry of Health Decree 3.681, stating the right of patients to refuse treatment, 2024 (Brazil)"},{"title":"Author of entry","value":"Carlos A. Pittella"},{"title":"Last updated","value":"26.06.2026 at 22:46"}],"toggles":[{"title":"Reviews","list":[{"text":"Alan Garc\u00eda Loza, \u2018El coraje de re\u00edr ante la muerte\u2019, El Pa\u00eds, 2026","link":"https:\/\/elpais.com\/cultura\/cine\/2026-03-24\/el-coraje-de-reir-ante-la-muerte.html","pathname":"elpais.com"},{"text":"\u2018Sonhar com Le\u00f5es\u2019, Cinem\u00e1tico \u2013 Episode 556, 2025","link":"https:\/\/www.b9.com.br\/shows\/cinematico\/sonhar-com-leoes\/","pathname":"b9.com.br"},{"text":"Raquel Carneiro, \u2018Sonhar com Le\u00f5es: Filme com Denise Fraga ousa ao falar sobre eutan\u00e1sia | Em Cartaz\u2019, VEJA, 2025","link":"https:\/\/veja.abril.com.br\/coluna\/em-cartaz\/sonhar-com-leoes-filme-com-denise-fraga-ousa-ao-falar-sobre-eutanasia\/","pathname":"veja.abril.com.br"},{"text":"Jorge Leit\u00e3o Ramos, \u2018Cinema: ser\u00e1 poss\u00edvel falar do direito a morrer e ter gra\u00e7a? \u2018Sonhar com Le\u00f5es\u2019 prova que sim\u2019, Expresso, 2025","link":"https:\/\/expresso.pt\/revista\/culturas\/cinema\/2025-05-08-cinema-sera-possivel-falar-do-direito-a-morrer-e-ter-graca--sonhar-com-leoes-prova-que-sim-3b87dbc7","pathname":"expresso.pt"},{"text":"Jeremy Clarke, \u2018Dreaming of Lions (Sonhar Com Le\u00f5es)\u2019, Dirty Movies, 2024","link":"https:\/\/dmovies.org\/2024\/11\/23\/dreaming-of-lions-sonhar-com-leoes\/","pathname":"dmovies.org"}]},{"title":"Media citations","list":[{"text":"Cynthia Ara\u00fajo, Denise Fraga, & Pedro Bial, \u2018Falar de suic\u00eddio \u00e9 delicado, mas tamb\u00e9m urgente\u2019, GNT on TikTok, 2025","link":"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@canalgnt\/video\/7554531570967645452","pathname":"tiktok.com"},{"text":"\u2018Sonhar com Le\u00f5es, o filme sobre o direito a viver e a morrer, Not\u00edcias ao Minuto, 2025","link":"https:\/\/www.noticiasaominuto.com\/cultura\/2781022\/sonhar-com-leoes-o-filme-sobre-o-direito-a-viver-e-a-morrer","pathname":"noticiasaominuto.com"},{"text":"\u2018Sonhar com Le\u00f5es | Entrevista com elenco e realizador do filme Paolo Marinou-Blanco\u2019, MHD, 2025","link":"https:\/\/www.magazine-hd.com\/apps\/wp\/sonhar-com-leoes-entrevista-paolo-marinou-blanco-joana-ribeiro\/","pathname":"magazine-hd.com"},{"text":"\u2018Sonhar com Le\u00f5es: uma com\u00e9dia sobre a eutan\u00e1sia como forma de resist\u00eancia \u00e0 dor\u2019, Time Out Lisboa, 2025","link":"https:\/\/www.timeout.pt\/lisboa\/pt\/noticias\/sonhar-com-leoes-uma-comedia-sobre-a-eutanasia-como-forma-de-resistencia-a-dor-050725","pathname":"timeout.pt"},{"text":"\u2018Sonhar com Le\u00f5es estreia em Portugal e reabre debate sobre eutan\u00e1sia\u2019, P\u00daBLICO, 2025","link":"https:\/\/www.publico.pt\/2025\/05\/07\/publico-brasil\/noticia\/sonhar-leoes-estreia-portugal-reabre-debate-eutanasia-2132172","pathname":"publico.pt"},{"text":"\u2018Tallinn Black Nights 2024 Interview: Paolo Marinou-Blanco (Dreaming of Lions)\u2019, International Cinephile Society, 2024","link":"https:\/\/icsfilm.org\/festivals\/tallinn\/2024-tallinn\/tallinn-black-nights-2024-interview-paolo-marinou-blanco-dreaming-of-lions\/","pathname":"icsfilm.org"},{"text":"\u2018Dreaming of Lions is an absurdist black comedy on euthanasia inspired by its director\u2019s experiences\u2019, The Hollywood Reporter, 2024","link":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/dreaming-of-lions-film-euthanasia-assisted-suicide-paolo-marinou-blanco-1236080490\/","pathname":"hollywoodreporter.com"}]},{"title":"Interest Group citations","list":[{"text":"\u2018M\u00e1s de 200 asistentes en el cine f\u00f3rum organizado por DMD Navarra\u2019, Derecho a Morir Dignamente, 2025","link":"https:\/\/derechoamorir.org\/2025\/11\/18\/mas-de-200-asistentes-en-el-cine-forum-organizado-por-dmd-navarra\/","pathname":"derechoamorir.org"},{"text":"\u2018Estreno de So\u00f1ando con Leones con la colaboraci\u00f3n de DMD\u2019, Derecho a Morir Dignamente, 2025","link":"https:\/\/derechoamorir.org\/2025\/11\/11\/estreno-de-sonando-con-leones-con-la-colaboracion-de-dmd\/","pathname":"derechoamorir.org"}]}]}