In the remote São Paulo countryside, a rural family who lives beside a charcoal factory accepts a proposal to host a mysterious foreigner. The home soon becomes a hideout, though, as their guest turns out to be a wanted drug lord, and the family must learn how to share the same roof with this stranger while keeping up appearances of an unchanged peasant routine.
The fantastic feature debut of Carolina Markowicz — who was just awarded the Emerging Talent Award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival — Charcoal has been likened to Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite in its masterful blend of black comedy and suspense, with The Guardian calling it a “tremendous thriller” in its four-star review and Variety declaring that the film “adds Markowicz’s name very firmly to that of an exciting new young generation of women cineastes in Brazil.” You can catch this festival favorite yourself on September 21 at IU Cinema!
“A sharp, specific thriller that also has a nice undercurrent of dark humor.” — Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
Charcoal will be screened at IU Cinema on September 21 as part of the Women on Top series.