Carolina Markowicz on Wryly Sinister Toronto, San Sebastian Title ‘Charcoal’
variety.comHolly Jones Hailed as a discovery by many critics who caught it at Toronto, where it world premiered in the Platform section, “Charcoal” adds Markowicz name very firmly to that of an exciting new young generation of women cineastes in Brazil.
It follows a family stretched thin in the smoke-enveloped Brazilian countryside, surrounded by numerous coal mines. When life becomes monotonous, matriarch Irene cuts a ludicrous deal with a local nurse.
Shrugging familial responsibilities, she callously agrees to put her ailing father out of his misery to house a fleeing fugitive, earning a lump sum of money.
Darkly humorous, the film is a grim depiction of humans with nothing left to lose, coming to terms with the world around them that’s fallen deeper into roiling apathy and brutality.
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