“Toll (Pedágio)”, interview with the director Carolina Markowicz and actress Maeve Jinkings

December 2, 2023

Brazilian director Carolina Markowicz delivers another 'tale on the elasticity of morality'.

"Toll (Pedágio)", interview with the director Carolina Markowicz and actress Maeve Jinkings Bénédicte Prot

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After her debut feature “Charcoal (Carvão)”, Carolina Markowicz reunites with lead actress Maeve Jinkings to deliver another ‘tale on the elasticity of morality’, selected to compete at the 20th Marrakech International Film Festival.

“Toll (Pedágio)”, set in a Brazilian context where the ordinary working people’s moral compass has long been out of whack, reflects flamboyantly, with exhilaratingly sardonic wit, on a certain ‘inversion of values’ whilst following the story of a loving mother who has unconsciously integrated the hypocritical notions that have pervaded this society (‘It’s very common to hear ”I’d rather have a son who’s a robber or a dead son, than a gay son,”‘ confirms the director), and will do anything to ‘correct’ his very openly gay son’s ‘flaw’ through an innovative (ie. bonkers) form of conversion therapy which isn’t exactly cheap. With the ‘help’ of her shady, cowardly loser of a boyfriend, she will be the one who pays for it.

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY

Carolina Markowicz has written and directed six short films, which have been selected at more than three hundred festivals and have received numerous awards. “The Orphan” (2018), her best-recognised work, had its premiere in the Director’s Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm. Since 2021, Markowicz has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her debut feature, “Charcoal” (2022), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to play at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. “Toll” (2023) is her second feature film. (source : Marrakech Film Festival official website)

Plot

Suellen, a Brazilian toll-booth attendant, falls in with a gang of thieves in an attempt to keep her family afloat. In doing so, she realises she can use her job to raise some extra money illegally for a so-called noble cause: to send her son to expensive conversion therapy led by a renowned foreign priest.

Written by: Bénédicte Prot

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