SXSW 2024: Writer-Director Carolina Markowicz and Star Maeve Jinkings Discuss Their Award-Winning Film, Toll

Art possesses the remarkable ability to hold a mirror up to audiences, prompting deep introspection and sparking much-needed conversations. This is precisely the case for writer-director Carolina Markowciz’s sophomore feature, Toll, starring the insatiable Maeve Jinkings as Suellen.

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

Pop Culturalist was fortunate enough to speak with Carolina and Maeve about Toll, grounding this script in realism, the important conversations it’s sparking, and more.

PC: Maeve, this is such a complex character to play who’s so flawed in her beliefs and actions, but she does represent the viewpoint of so many. You brought so much depth and nuance to her journey. As an actress, how did you create the space for yourself to tackle that arc?
Maeve: The most complex aspect of Suellen was trying to find her humanity because it’s very easy to villainize her as she’s a homophobic mother. It was about understanding the love between that mother-son relationship. That was the most important and powerful part about playing this character. There is a lot of love in that relationship even though it’s profoundly conflicted. But I saw that immense love in Carolina’s script, and we added some additional layers during the research that I did for the role. Underneath the conflict is this very real and strong relationship between a mother and her son.

It was an exploration of the different forms of love, not just within the LGBTQ+ community, but the family as a whole. Suellen is a single mother. She’s a hard worker. I had all these different layers to play with.

PC: Carolina, without giving any spoilers, there’s so much realism in that ending scene which is so heartbreaking. How early on in the process did you realize that was going to be your ending?
Carolina: That’s a very good question because it’s one of the earliest decisions that I made. The final scene was one of the first ones that I had written. I wanted it to be a very strong moment. Sometimes it doesn’t work, and you change your mind, but in this case, I thought about that final scene very early in the process. I wanted to have the biggest impact possible.

PC: Maeve, Carolina wrote and directed this project. How different is that filming experience when the person who created these characters and the universe is also at the helm directing? How has this long-standing collaboration between the two of you allowed you to take agency over your character and make the creative decisions that you did throughout the film?
Maeve: [laughs] We were both afraid of repeating the same actress with the same director because the characters are similar as well. In Charcoal, she’s not a single mom, but she’s raising her son by herself. So we were afraid that it could be seen as too similar.

But it’s funny to look back on that now because those characters are so different. I see Irene and Suellen in such different ways. Irene is much more conservative than Suellen. She’s from the countryside. She’s more isolated.

What Carolina has done so brilliantly with the script, which was very smart, is that Suellen isn’t conservative; she’s actually very open-minded, but the pressure is coming from outside influences like friends and society and through gossip and various WhatsApp groups, which is super smart because that’s how it often is in real life.

But it’s been great working with Carolina again because we developed a rich artistic vocabulary when we were working on Charcoal. There was real trust built there. We really listened to each other.

PC: Carolina, one of the most beautiful things about art is the ability to shine a light on really timely subject matter, and it forces audiences to do a lot of self-reflection. What do you hope audiences take away after seeing this? Having brought this film around the festival circuit, what has it been like seeing the conversations that it’s sparking?
Carolina: I really enjoy that it’s sparking conversations. As a filmmaker, I’d like for audiences to take what they will from it. The film shows the importance of having support, especially from your family. But the most important thing for me is that people are discussing the film and getting to see the hypocritical things that are going on. People are always concerned with the things they shouldn’t care about like who someone loves or is having sex with. There are more important matters in the world. We shouldn’t be trying to take away others’ freedom.

Make sure to follow Carolina (Instagram) and Maeve (Instagram)