The Plague
A Film by Charlie Polinger
United States — 2025 — 95 min — Drama / Psychological Thriller With Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin, Kenny Rasmussen, Joel Edgerton Screenplay: Charlie Polinger — Shot on 35mm in Bucharest, Romania
Ben is twelve years old and desperate to fit in. At the Tom Lerner Water Polo Camp, the boys have their own rules, their own hierarchies and their own cruelty. When a rumour spreads that Ben has contracted a mysterious skin disease the boys call “the plague,” he finds himself cast out by the group. As the isolation deepens and the symptoms begin to appear, the line between social game and physical reality grows terrifyingly thin.
LONG METRAGE SÉANCE SPECIALE
About the Film
The Plague is a film about what it feels like to be twelve not the nostalgic, softened version, but the raw, humiliating, hyperintense reality of it. Shot on 35mm in Bucharest, the film traps its young protagonist inside a closed system, a water polo camp, where power shifts without warning and every social interaction carries the stakes of a horror film. Polinger draws on memories of his own summer camp in 2003, and the result is something specific enough to feel lived-in, and universal enough to be genuinely unsettling. A debut that recalls the spirit of Lord of the Flies, with the formal rigour of Kubrick and the bodily unease of Claire Denis.
Charlie Polinger
An American writer-director, Charlie Polinger came to attention with his short film The Masque of the Red Death, produced by A24. The Plague is his feature debut. When Joel Edgerton first read the script, he wanted to direct it himself, instead, he came on board as a producer to help get it made, with Polinger at the helm. The film premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2025, and won the Grand Prix at the Deauville American Film Festival the same year.
Awards & Selections
- World Premiere — Cannes Film Festival 2025, Un Certain Regard
- Grand Prix — Deauville American Film Festival 2025
- Selections — Fantastic Fest, Sitges, AFI Fest, Chicago International Film Festival
- Official Selection — FIJA 2026 — Feature Films, Paris