Canadian Premiere
Abandoned by his mother at an all-boys water polo camp, 12-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck) is plunged into the deep end of toxic peer pressure. Almost debilitatingly shy and terrified of incurring the wrath of his feral campmates’ pint-sized ringleader (Kayo Martin), Ben joins the braying pack in mercilessly tormenting Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), an awkward kid whose unsightly skin rash has been branded “the plague” and deemed highly transmissible by the boys. But when Ben begins to find similar blemishes on his own body, he questions whether there might possibly be some credence to their wild claims…
One of the most promising debuts from this year’s Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, Charlie Polinger’s exquisitely lensed, propulsively edited, and impeccably acted bullying drama amplifies all-too-familiar adolescent anxieties into the stuff of nerve-fraying horror. And yet for all of its aesthetic prowess, it’s The Plague’s psychological acuity and emotional authenticity that makes it an experience that’s impossible to shake.
Supported by
Media Partner
Everett Blunck, Joel Edgerton, Kayo Martin
USA
2025
English
At International Village
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
Joel Edgerton, Lizzie Shapiro, Lucy McKendrick, Steven Schneider, Roy Lee, Derek Dauchy
Screenwriter
Charlie Polinger
Cinematography
Steven Breckon
Editor
Henry Hayes, Simon Njoo
Original Music
Johan Lenox
Charlie Polinger
Charlie Polinger is a New York–based filmmaker whose feature film debut is The Plague (2025). His second feature, The Masque of the Red Death, will be produced by A24 and Picturestart, and goes into production later this year.
Filmography: A Place to Stay (2018); Sauna (2018); Fuck Me, Richard (2023)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.