Carolina Markowicz and Toll: Finding Love and Support During Desolate Times
Toll was one of the biggest surprises for me at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. This Brazilian film encompasses the vitriol a mother — a tollbooth operator named Suellen — has for her homosexual son and the lengths she goes to in order to change him. The film’s director is Carolina Markowicz: a rising talent who TIFF presented the Emerging Talent Award. She was congratulated for good reason: she clearly has a keen eye for how to best present the complexities of sociopolitical turmoil whilst finding small glimpses of hope even where they don’t seem present.
We are happy to present that we had the opportunity to talk with Markowicz before festival about her achievement. Our critic, Andreas Babiolakis, knew that Toll would make a splash and it has done so since its world premiere. Markowicz discusses the importance of Toll’s release at this very moment, the urgency to have compassion for others during these challenging times, and how to best approach problematic people with a cinematic lens. She also presents a few of the films she was excited to catch at TIFF this year while she is in town. Check out the review below!
Warning: The following interview may contain spoilers for Toll, a film that has just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
Films Fatale: Hi, how are you doing?
Carolina Markowicz: Hello, Andreas! How are you?
FF: I’m doing well! How many of these [interviews] do you have today?
CM: A lot! (laughs)
FF: Let’s make this short and sweet! First and foremost, congratulations on having your second feature film take place at the Toronto International Film Festival! Toll is a sensational film. I caught it yesterday. Also congratulations on being named an emerging talent at TIFF as well!
CM: Thank you so much, Andreas! I’m so happy that you enjoyed the film. I’m so happy about coming back to Toronto with Toll and about the award. I mean, I’m so excited and honoured. I can’t wait to show the film to the audience on September 8th when the premiere will be.
FF: Technically you were working on Toll before your feature film debut [Charcoal] last year. During the hiatus on Toll’s production, did anything change with the story or shoot?
CM: Well, this is a very good question because it was a crazy moment. Charcoal was the very first film. I started writing it in 2015 or 2016. I started writing Toll at the same time, but the money was raised faster. We were going to shoot Toll first. Then the pandemic came. Toll was a very difficult film to shoot during the pandemic. Lots of locations, [having to be in] the middle of the road, and everything else. We decided to come back to Charcoal and shoot it before. Originally, Charcoal was supposed to be the debut. That’s the funny part. After that, we decided to shoot Toll before but the pandemic made us go with the original idea by shooting Charcoal first.
FF: So everything worked out how you preferred nonetheless?
CM: I’ve been thinking about it these [past] days. I don’t know if I prefer one or the other [being released] before. It’s not like I prefer one [film] over the other at all. I’ve been thinking about that. What would happen if Toll was [released] before Charcoal? Who knows. It’s crazy because this almost was [the case], but then in the end, it wasn’t. It’s very funny now because it feels like the right moment for Toll is now. Things are happening in Brazil with the politicians. It’s crazy. Our former president was caught selling jewelry — some watches (Rolexes) — that he got from the Arab government. He was selling them illegally. Toll is about a woman who sells watches, too. A couple of things are happening [in Brazil] now that are so similar to the film! It feels like this is the right moment for Toll in Brazil. It’s a signal.
FF: I’m so happy that you brought up this point. One thing that came to mind is the symbol of a tollbooth operator and the idea of gatekeeping with a mother character (Suellen) who is trying to change her son’s identity through all of these awful means (like the illegal selling of jewelry). Is this something you were trying to portray? People with the ability to have power and cause shifts are using their means for bad?
CM: Absolutely. I think the intolerance and how it affects peoples’ lives — you don’t need to be religious — it’s inside peoples’ souls because, even if they aren’t religious, they are a product of society. Society says that it’s wrong to be this or that. [Toll is about] how this affects the people and a person themself. I think the film is pretty much about how we ended up here: how this is a concern to other people. For me, this is a very important discussion.
FF: Toll is an intense film through and through, but I love how the ending is extremely bittersweet: the idea that all of this injustice was for nothing, but there’s a little bit of championing for those who have the ability to love themselves and others. How did you arrive to such a conclusion? Was that the ending you always had in mind, or did the film organically work its way there?
CM: Thank you so much! I think you completely got it. It’s an ending I have always thought about. It’s one of the first things that I wrote for the film. I always wanted the ending to be with Suellen looking at her son. It’s bittersweet, as you said. You’re looking at the mother and expecting a reaction that your heart wants her to have. That’s not like real life. Maybe she will have [this compassion] one day, but you see and expect it. The scene plays with this expectation and at the same time, you can see that her eyes are full of tears. You see that there is emotion and she isn’t cold. There’s this complexity. I always wanted this end to be complex: to show the son’s strength and the mother’s flaw. Even if she doesn’t accept her son, she will have to at some point. She depends on him now and she will have to look at him [for who he is]. She’s at a place where she will have to face it.
FF: The title itself (Toll) has a series of different interpretations: the tollbooth operator, and the definition of toll and the weight of the seriousness of Suellen’s decisions. The original title in Portuguese is Pedágio. Does it have the same multiple meanings in Portuguese or is it a more direct title this way?
CM: It’s exactly the same in Portuguese. I find the word “toll” very important and fascinating. There are a lot of interpretations. You have to give something to pay something to get somewhere. Nothing’s for free. Pedágio has this double meaning as well. A tollbooth is almost like something that stays in your way. It’s very metaphoric to the film.
FF: What do you want viewers to take away from Toll?
CM: The main thing is that we must love [each other]. When you have love and support inside your house for the ones you love, you will have the strength to face anything in life. The world is hard, but when I have the support and love inside of the people [around you], you are prepared for anything. I also wanted to portray people as ridiculous as they are: those people who think that homosexuals should change and that they have some kind of illness. I wanted to portray this in a pathetic manner because I wanted them to be seen this way.
FF: Filmmakers are cinephiles first and foremost. Are there any films you’re excited to watch while you're at TIFF?
CM: There are so many films! I was so excited with the TIFF lineup when I saw it. One I can say for sure is the one by Justine Triet that won the Palme d’Or: Anatomy of a Fall. Also the Aki Kaurismäki film [Fallen Leaves]. There are many others, but I’m waiting to see these films so much!
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.