Suellen needs some money. She is a single mother raising a teenage son on the salary of a toll booth worker in an industrial Brazilian town. Her son’s father is out of the picture, and her live-in boyfriend does nothing but take from what little she has. Her solution to her financial woes is to join a gang of thieves who steal wristwatches from wealthy motorists. With this money, Suellen can pay for the most important thing in her life: her son’s conversion therapy.
Director Carolina Markowicz presents a cinematic study of intolerance and hypocrisy. In a town where confession and prayer relieve you of the sins of infidelity, theft, and judgment, no sin is greater than a boy wearing makeup and learning English so he can lip-sync to his favourite American singers. The narrow-minded Suellen considers the perception of others before her son’s happiness, leading her to make a series of rash decisions that will have fateful consequences for the both of them.
Maeve Jinkings, Kauan Alvarenga, Thomás Aquino, Aline Marta Maia, Isac Graça
Brazil/Portugal
2023
Panorama
In Portuguese with English subtitles
Violence
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
João Macedo, Chica Mendonça
Producer
Karen Castanho, Vega Luís, Urbano, Bianca Villar, Fernando Fraiha, Sandro Aguilar, Carolina Markowicz
Screenwriter
Carolina Markowicz
Cinematography
Luis Armando Arteaga
Editor
Lautaro Colace; Ricardo Saraiva
Production Design
Vicente Saldanha
Original Music
Filipe Derado
Director
Carolina Markowicz
Carolina Markowicz has written and directed six short films selected by more than 300 festivals and is the recipient of many awards. The Orphan premiered in Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight in 2018 and won the Queer Palm. Since 2021, Her debut feature, Charcoal, premiered at Toronto and San Sebastian in 2022.
Filmography: Charcoal (2022)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Kneeling Goddess
In which wealthy industrialist Arturo de Cordova purchases the titular nude sculpture of his lover (María Félix) as an anniversary gift for his innocent, adoring wife. Soon enough the wife is dead, though untangling just how and why is part of the fun.
The Blue Trail
77-year-old Tereza makes a break for the Brazilian jungle in this trippy septuagenarian fantasy, the latest from Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro is a quirky picaresque, lushly photographed and filled with mordant humour.
Two Prosecutors
In the midst of Stalin’s purges, a naïve prosecutor sets out to investigate a prisoner’s innocence, unaware of the labyrinthine bureaucracy awaiting him. A Kafkaesque procedural thriller about the pursuit of justice in the face of corruption.
Image: © SBS Productions
Crepúsculo
A brain surgeon (Arturo de Córdova) begins to doubt his own sanity when the woman he's in love with (Gloria Marin) marries his brother — and he starts fantasizing about murder.
Victims of Sin
This movie is a hot scramble of piety and passion, sentimentality and sleaze. Ninón Sevilla plays Violeta, a rumba sensation who oversteps when she rescues a newborn from the trash. This gets her fired and wins the enmity of the pimp who fathered the kid.