Joel Edgerton wanted to direct The Plague himself. When Charlie Polinger said he wanted the job, Edgerton stepped back, joined as a producer, and took a role in front of the camera instead.
Polinger shot the film on 35mm in Bucharest with a cast of child actors, most of them unknown. It is his first feature.
At Cannes, The Plague received an eleven-minute standing ovation in the Un Certain Regard section. That is the longest ovation for any film in that section in the festival's history, and the longest ever for a debut director.
The film is about a tween at a water polo camp who watches a classmate get scapegoated and has to decide how much it costs to belong.
People on Backlot are watching this. If you ever felt the pull of going along with something you knew was wrong, this one is going to stick.
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