INTENT
DEAD-END explores the precarious nature of platform-based work through the story of Susana. The film was inspired by a brief encounter with a courier and her children, which led me to explore the working conditions of gig workers and the algorithmic systems that control them.
The app acts as the antagonist, with interventions—many based on real dialogues—that feel disturbingly disconnected from human experience, verging on dystopian. To emphasize the urgency of this subject, I adopted a raw and realistic aesthetic, merging social realism with intimacy. Influences include Wasp by Andrea Arnold, The Florida Project by Sean Baker, and Sorry We Missed You by Ken Loach.
Set largely within a car, the story emphasizes physical and emotional confinement. It explores themes of surveillance, oppression, and the illusion of choice, as Susana struggles to balance motherhood with the relentless demands of the platform economy.
Dead End
PRE-PRODUCTION
FICTION SHORT
by Silvana Torricella
Cimbalino Filmes
During a night shift as a food delivery driver, Susana, a single mother, struggles to manage her two young children in the car.
As the app pushes her toward more deliveries, the children grow tired and the pressure mounts. A GPS error traps her in a loop, sending her repeatedly to a dead-end street.
Lost in a maze of identical streets and unable to complete the delivery, Susana breaks down.
