Those Sage Days

When her childhood best friend returns after years of silence, Charlotte is drawn back into a past shaped by shared rituals and fragmented memories. As the boundary between memory and reality begins to blur, Charlotte must face the unspoken feelings she has carried for years, and learn how to live with a bond too fragile to hold, yet too precious to let go.

  • Fabrizio Quagliuso
    Director
    Would You Rather
  • Fabrizio Quagliuso
    Writer
    Would You Rather
  • Alba Fernandez
    Director of Photography
  • Carlotta Sclano
    Key Cast
    "Charlotte (Young)"
    Would You Rather
  • Chiara Hicks
    Key Cast
    "Julie (Young)"
  • Andreane Rellou
    Key Cast
    "Charlotte (Adult)"
  • Tessa Battaiotto
    Key Cast
    "Julie (Adult)"
  • Hugo Dunkley
    Key Cast
    "Alex"
  • Biagina Cherubini
    Production Design
    Would You Rather
  • Davide Contessa
    Editor
  • Danilo Zambrano
    Sound Design and Mix
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    23 minutes 9 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 15, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    13,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    Ireland, United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Fabrizio Quagliuso

Fabrizio Quagliuso is an Italian writer, director and photographer born in Naples and based in London. His work focuses on intimate, emotionally driven stories that explore identity, memory and the quiet complexities of human relationships.
In 2023, he wrote and directed his first short film, Would You Rather, a coming-of-age story centered on acceptance and self-expression, which was screened at a number of international festivals. His second short film, Those Sage Days (2026), explores childhood bonds, unspoken emotions and the fragile ways memory reshapes what we hold onto.
Alongside filmmaking, Fabrizio has published several photobooks, and his photographic work has been exhibited in the UK, Italy, and Japan. His background in photography informs a visual approach rooted in observation, atmosphere and emotional subtlety.

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Director Statement

Memory is a choice. How do we reshape it in order to live with the past?
I was drawn to how this question plays out in childhood, a time of intense and fragile friendships, and to the way the memories of that period are carried forward. I wanted to explore that space not as nostalgia, but as something more complex: a place where connection, longing and identity begin to take shape, and where deep feelings emerge before we have the words to understand them. Julie and Charlotte, childhood best friends, exist in that space.
At its core, the film explores memory as something fluid, shaped by time, emotion and perspective. I approached the film’s structure in the same way, allowing the story to unfold like a memory rather than a linear narrative. Moments surface, overlap and reshape one another, guided more by feeling than by chronology, with a visual language that leans into the poetic and lyrical rather than the purely explanatory.
Those Sage Days is also a story of unspoken feelings: of a closeness between two young girls that begins to shift into something deeper before it can be understood or named.
Because the story touches on queer identity and unspoken love, it was important for me to work closely with queer collaborators, beginning with the director of photography, whose perspective helped shape the film’s emotional truth.
Above all, Those Sage Days is a film about time: about the feeling that, as children, we believe we have all the time in the world, and the quiet realisation, as we grow up, that we didn’t. It is about learning to live with what remains.