Interview: Carolina Markowicz – Charcoal (Carvão)

Pandemic times gifted Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz with fraternal film twins. Toll would turn out to be her sophomore feature, but she broke out with Charcoal — a film set in rural Brazil features Maeve Jinkings as the matriarch struggles to hold her nuclear family together when everything around her is burning up. Markowicz explores the shifting hierarchy of this one family (with a new visitor) and the community that surrounds it with a generous touch of comedy noir with hot plate of revenge. Just after having its world premiere (in the Platform section) at TIFF in 2022, Charcoal (Carvão) would then splash at Donostia-San Sebastian. I spoke to the filmmaker in Toronto discussing the idea behind setting the world in the land of wood burning, the traits of her character set and how the backdrop inform and inspire Jinkings’ performance.