Toll

To pay for the conversion therapy she believes her gay son needs, a well-intentioned tollbooth operator turns to crime in this crafty and unpredictable drama.

Suellen is a tollbooth attendant in the industrial Brazilian city of Cubatão. Despite her poverty, she considers herself a moral gatekeeper, kicking out her boyfriend Arauto after she learns he’s been hiding stolen goods in her home. She also feels compelled to stop her proudly gay 17-year-old son Tiquinho from facing a lifetime of persecution. Although Suellen lights a ‘virility candle’ for him each dawn, Tiquinho keeps trying on make-up and filming elaborate drag performance videos in his pink bedroom full of rainbow lights. So when Suellen’s co-worker Telma recommends an expensive gay conversion camp led by a foreign priest, she decides to pay for Tiquinho’s salvation by joining Arauto’s gang of thieves.

Director Carolina Markowicz reunites with actor Maeve Jinkings, who also starred in her debut feature Charcoal (MIFF 2023), for this sharp, subtle and frequently surprising character study that also unfolds as a critique of exploitative social institutions. In Toll, Suellen is no simplistic bigot; rather, she’s a well-meaning mother constrained by her circumstances, and she comes to learn the true cost of choosing certain paths.

“This film serves to confirm Markowicz as one of Brazil’s most impressive rising talents, and it’s well worth your time.” – Eye for Film