Special Report: Sick (2026)

Hold your ears folks it's showtime people pay good money to see this movie when they go out to a theater they want cold sodas hot popcorn and no monsters in the projection. Booth everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring turn it off What is your most embarrassing desire? What do you mean by embarrassing? In the sense that you're stupid and you have such thoughts. Mucks?

Welcome to The Projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White. My guest today is Agata Trezbuchowska, the actress from Ida, who now makes her directing debut with Sick, a body horror coming-of-age story about a young woman drifting from herself as adolescence takes hold. Sick makes its world premiere at Fantastic Fest. I had a great time talking with Agata, and I hope you have a great time listening.

Enjoy. So I am fascinated by this film, by Sick, but I would love to know a little bit more about you and how you decided to get into filmmaking. I played in Ida by Paweł Pachlipowski, and it was an incredible journey and adventure for me. But I never planned to continue acting, but it definitely got me interested in film and in directing. But I was very young by then, and I wanted to take time and see If in a few years I will be still interested, then here I am.

Can you talk to me about some of the short films that you've directed? Um, so the first one, uh, is called, uh, heat and it was very, uh, independently made fun, um, that I shot, I believe eight years ago. And it tells a very silly story of two teenagers who. got high and they, uh, decide to, I mean that one will replace another and go to his grandma and take care of her, uh, because she has dementia and she's not gonna tell the difference anyway. But the grandma is, uh, not that, you know, easy to, uh, be fooled. So. she uses the occasion to reveal the secret about her past to this young boy.

And another one that came a few years later, I mean, afterwards, that tells the story of a woman who finds herself in a vacant house And starts observing her family from the distance and second-guess herself as all decisions she made in her life. Seems like you've got a lot of family drama. Yeah, you could say so, yeah. Can you tell me where did the idea for Sick come from? I was interested in this specific, but disorienting moment when you become someone unknown to yourself.

Like the body and the hormones do something very specific to you. to yourself that you stop recognize yourself anymore. And, um, I was interested how far you can drift away from yourself when you are in this very isolation. And when you're the word, you, you know, and, uh, used to be familiar is falling apart and how far you can actually drift from it. So. That's how this movie came about.

Have you ever been in a caretaker situation like with your grandmother and this or the short film? Yes. Yes. I wasn't isolated the way my characters are, but yes, I was also a caretaker to some extent. Can you tell me about your cast and how you found your cast?

The fun was very swift, like the whole pre-production and the shooting itself. So the casting was also very swift process. And I was very lucky because I found my actors very early on. And the girl, for example. I found on Instagram when going through the pictures of the other actor that I consider for the male part.

And I found her very charismatic. And I asked her to join me audition. And she was, she was great. She was unbeatable. And the same was with the main actor, with Konorov, I played the Max.

He hasn't got much experience because he's very young. He's just 20 years old and he's not in a film school even, but he was very magnetic. And there is something about his personality presence and how he's able to convey both intimacy and a certain unease and that's what i was looking for um yeah to find characters who will be believable natural and with very limited means able to convey this complexity. And now that you had had you know done assistant directing, had directed short films. How was it though, making your first feature?

It was amazing. It was amazing. And I had been waiting for the moment for a pretty long time because I was working, I had been working on a different project for a while and I had some difficulties with gathering funds. so I had this very strong need to prove myself on set and it was amazing experience I love every stage of the making process I love I love working with cinematographer and the crew members. I love editing. I love sound work.

I love everything. So it was very, it was amazing and very refreshing. And it was good to feel that what you have on mind can actually be find its external form and can be actually executed. So yes, it was cool. It sounds amazing.

Have you had a chance to see it with an audience yet though? Not really, not for me. We're going to have our premiere in five days, I believe, during Fantastic Fest. So we'll see. I'm also very curious how it's going to be received.

So Yeah, and I'm coming with the cast and a few crew members, so we are all very excited to present the film to the audience, finally. Do you know what you're working on next? Yes, I'm working on two projects, and one of them is a dark fairy tale about sisters and a rivalry between two of them. And the other one is totally sick mockumentary about, um, couple in crisis. Is there a good place online for people to keep up with you and your work?

Yes. Uh, especially with sick because we have our page on and profile on Instagram. So, um, people can follow us there. Definitely. It's sick.

The movie it's called. I'm so excited for you to be able to see this with an audience. I really had a great time with it and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do next, because it's such a personal story, but you tell it in such a compelling manner. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.