‘Blight’ is a dystopian rites-of-passage feature film, set in the near future in a blighted Northumberland ten years after a lethal pandemic. It was originally started on the producers’ workshop of EAVE 16. ‘Blight’ got shortlisted for I-Features.
Logline
An overwhelmed teenage girl – raised on a remote island, must brave the pandemic and fight for her freedom in order to escape her increasingly abusive family.
Synopsis
Turning 16, desperate and isolated on a tiny island – within a toxic blended family; fraught Tess follows her weak mother Marion’s advice and constantly placates her domineering step-father, Sam, and her needy, adolescent step-brother, Josh.
However, when Marion dies unexpectedly, and Sam starts being scarily inappropriate, Tess makes the break for freedom with Josh – promising him a new start. Attacked by Sam, they leave him for dead and escape to the mainland and the promise of reconnecting with Marion’s sister’s family. Traversing a verdant empty countryside, Josh becomes increasingly sexual with Tess. Only she has the address of the Study Centre, and she takes advantage of Josh spraining his ankle to ditch him and go on alone. She promises to return, but just can’t when she finds a new and caring family idyll, built on fairness and respect – watched over by her cousin, Rebecca.
When Sam catches up with Josh he helps him get better and renews the bonds of loyalty. Tess’s brief benign reign as teacher and huntress ends as soon as the men arrive. They take over and seem like gods to these children raised by children. Sam is the only adult male they’ve ever seen and he laps up the attention. Tess feels immense guilt for bringing this toxicity down on the idyll, but is threatened into silence by Sam. Tess must make a decision to actively protect this new and whole family before Sam destroys it from within – corrupting everything and everyone. Drawing on her mother’s herbal knowledge she forces Sam and Josh to betray their true motives; resulting in Sam’s poisoning and Josh’s exile.
A Boat Hut on Holy Island
© James T M Towill
Licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0