EXCLUSIVE: Pluto Film has boarded sales for Agata Trzebuchowska’s horror feature Sick ahead of its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin in September, which will be followed by its European debut at the Sitges Film Festival.
The unsettling film about the horrors of growing up is the feature directorial debut of Polish director, screenwriter and actress Agata Trzebuchowska, who is best known internationally for her lead performance in Paweł Pawlikowski’s 2015 Oscar winner Ida.
Patryk Sielecki and Adrianna Rędzia at Warsaw-based Lumisenta lead produce, while the cast features stars Konrad Kąkol, Katarzyna Łubik, Monika Niemczyk, Julian Świeżewski, and Eliza Rycembel.
Set against the backdrop of the summer holidays, Sick revolves around sixteen-year-old Maks (Kąkol) and his older sister Emma (Łubik) who are sent to the Polish countryside to care for their ailing grandmother.
Trapped together in the heavy, stifling isolation of the summer heat, the siblings’ bond begins to shift into something unsettling and difficult to define. As tensions rise and boundaries begin to blur, their grandmother’s frail presence takes on an increasingly disturbing quality, turning a once-idyllic summer into a haunting passage into adulthood.
“We are very happy that Sick has found its home at Pluto Film. From our first conversations, we felt that they understood both the film’s provocative nature and the tenderness hidden beneath its genre elements,” said Lumisenta’s Patryk Sielecki.
“The world premiere at Fantastic Fest and the European premiere at Sitges are an exciting beginning for the film, bringing it to audiences open to bold and unconventional stories. At the same time, we believe Sick can resonate beyond the genre circuit, as it is ultimately a deeply emotional story about adolescence, desire and dependence, centered on a relationship that crosses every possible boundary.”
Pluto Film MD Daniela Cölle praised Trzebuchowska’s bold reinvention of the classic coming-of-age summer tale.
“Agata Trzebuchowska has created an atmospheric and unsettling horror film that transforms the oppressive calmness of a summer into a powerful psychological landscape. Rather than coming-of-age story, Sick is the horror of growing up, exploring the fear, confusion, and loss of certainty that accompany the passage into adulthood.”
Trzebuchowska shot to fame for her performance in Ida, as a young woman on the verge of taking her vows as a nun, after being scouted in a café by director Małgorzata Szumowska who knew her friend Pawlikowski was struggling to find the right person for the role.
Trzebuchowska has eschewed mainstream fame since to forge her own path as a screenwriter and director. Sick follows short films including the Sundance-selected Heat and Vacancy, which also travelled the festival circuit stopping off at Go Short and Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival.
She also continues to act and was recently seen in Pete Ohs’ Erupcja alongside Charli XCX, Lena Góra and Will Madden.
Sick will premiere in the New Wave sidebar of the Fantastic Fest running from September 17 to 24, 2026.
Watch a first trailer for the film below:
