‘A Wolf at the Door’s’ Fernando Coimbra Marks Return to Brazil with ‘Carnival is Over,’ Trailer Bows Ahead of Toronto World Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

Brazil’s Fernando Coimbra marks both his return to filming in Brazil with crime drama “Carnival is Over” (“Os enforcados”) and to the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) where his acclaimed debut feature “A Wolf at the Door” had its world premiere in 2013.

“Carnival” is Coimbra’s third feature which debuts its trailer exclusively in Variety in advance of its Sept. 6 world premiere at TIFF. It is produced by prominent Brazilian producer Fabiano Gullane of Gullane Filmes, which is having a banner year with this taut drama, animated feature “Noah’s Ark” and the highly anticipated Netflix series “Senna.”

After directing episodes of international series “Narcos,” “Outcast” and “Perry Mason” and the feature “Sand Castle,” starring Nicholas Hoult and Henry Cavill, among others, Coimbra admits he was ready to come home. “I was dying to work in Brazil again, speaking in my own language about what I know deeply and live every day,” said Coimbra who also penned the feature.

Set in Rio de Janeiro, Valério (Irandhir Santos) and Regina (Leandra Leal) are desperate to escape the treacherous world of their so-called “family business.” One night, encouraged by his ambitious wife, Valerio decides to kill his uncle, the ruthless boss, and sell off the business. But their plan plunges them deeper into the very cycle of violence they were trying to escape.

“’Carnival is Over’ is, first and foremost, about a marriage,” noted Coimbra, adding: “The couple makes a pact and sets a life plan that they are incapable of fulfilling but this plan is based on a crime. One last crime that would lead them towards making their dreams come true. But reality is very different from the dream, and things go wrong.”

He was inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” but wanted to tell the story from Lady Macbeth’s perspective, he said. “Carnival” also marks Coimbra’s return to working with Leal who played Rosa in “A Wolf at the Door,” a fact-based child abduction drama.

“I knew what [Leal] was capable of and that she would enhance Regina’s layers while Irandhir Santos was an actor I had wanted to work with for a long time,” said Coimbra, who added that they built the characters together.

He sees the similarity that lies between “Carnival is Over” and “A Wolf at the Door” is in the ambiguity of their characters. “There’s no good or evil. They themselves are their own worst enemies, crossing a line they shouldn’t and one that will lead them to ruin,” he observed.

But in “Carnival is Over,” Coimbra wanted to deal with the realities of life in Brazil among the country’s economic elite. The idea began to emerge during the filming of “A Wolf at the Door,” when Coimbra passed by the upper middle-class Rio neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca on his way to the set.

“We have a huge crime rate, absurd income inequality, but cinema tends to look at crime as something at the bottom of the pyramid: the periphery, the suburbs, the slums. And where is the money? A large part of our elite is extremely corrupt. They are those who claim to be good citizens, but actually do a lot of illegal things to get rich.”

The film is a co-production of Gullane, Fado Filmes, Globo Filmes, Telecine and Pavuna Pictures.

The 49^th Toronto Film Festival runs Sept. 5-15.