L’État de siège

A comet screams ominously through the sky, rupturing the sweet status quo of a sleepy summer. One by one, stricken bodies collapse as two smiling bureaucrats, the Plague and his loyal secretary Death, take control of the government, imposing a regime of contagion, domination, and disinformation.

Renowned French director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota (Six Characters in Search of an Author, 2014 Next Wave; Rhinoceros, 2012 Next Wave) sets his expansive sights on Albert Camus’ 1948 play, an alternative-fact-filled allegory as disquieting today as it was in the soul-searching years after World War II. Amid the fear and betrayal festering in the shadowy scenography of Demarcy-Mota’s occupied city, survivors struggle to grasp the freedom that might yet be within their reach.