THE TOLL
2021 | Dir Ryan Andrew Hooper | 83 mins | 
UK
Pembrokeshire – where English people come to die.
A single toll booth on a road in the middle of nowhere. A lone wolf howls in the distance. Actually, it’s probably a stray dog.
Brendan, at the age of 56 works solo shifts in the toll booth, and has done since he arrived here twenty-nine years ago. He passes the time reading American academic novels (an underrated genre) and persisting with eating cheese despite a mild lactose intolerance setting in. What none of the handful of locals know about Brendan is that he moved down this way for a reason – a reason he’s managed to hide until today.
The unassuming, slightly unfriendly and somewhat belligerent man working in the loneliest toll booth in the remotest part of west Wales has been hiding from his criminal past in a place where no-one ever thought to look. Pembrokeshire.
The David Lean Cinema receives a share of the ticket price when booked via links on this page.
“Michael Smiley is the toll operator facing up to his murky past in this fusion of western and black comedy reminiscent of the Coen brothers’ finest work” Cath Clarke in The Guardian