‘[REC]’ Producer Filmax Brings to Market ‘The Nest’ 

Barcelona-based studio Filmax is bringing its latest production, psychological thriller “The Nest” to the Cannes market. Hugo Steven (“Solo”) directs and Michelle Jenner (“Berlin,” “Julieta”) stars. 

In a Filmax strategy employed on “Darkness,” a breakout U.S. hit for Miramax, the cast and crew of “The Nest” have shot a promo produced for buyers at Cannes’ Marché du Film before the film goes into production over the next few months.

Filmax has shared the promo in exclusivity with Variety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP3YmjBwtVY

The promo is in English, though the film itself will be shot in Spanish. Penned by Santiago Lallana (“Solo”), César de Nicolás and Stuven, “The Nest” turns on Marta, who is so obsessed with protecting her family from the terrifying outside world that she keeps her mother and young son locked in their mountain village home. Everything seems to go well until one day a man arrives, intent on destroying everything Marta has built.

In the promo, holding her son, Marta expounds the rules her mother and young son must obey: “You can never go out at day, only at night, but you must never cross the forest, because evil is born between its roots.” Her aged mother appears as the camera pans away to a large box chained to the floor and Marta pronounces the last rule: “Never ever go near the sincerity box.” From the sound of hushed breathing, someone or something appears to be in the box.

Filmax — which is behind genre hits “[REC],” “The Nameless,” “The Machinist” — will also handle distribution in Spain as well as world sales. 

“With such a long list of genre film successes behind us, at Filmax we’ve been waiting a long time to find a project worthy enough to live up to our back catalog. ‘The Nest’ is that project,” said Iván Díaz, Filmax head of international.

“’The Nest’ has all the elements of a classic suspense movie and the story it tells of what goes on behind the closed doors of one family is both disturbing and terrifying,” says producer Laura Fernández at Filmax.

“A perverse, cold and calculating woman, convinced she’s doing what’s necessary to protect her family, keeps her mother and young son locked up inside the house,” she adds. “The constant sense of unease makes it both captivating and horrifying. It’s a story that takes place inside one house, within one family, but one which could, unfortunately, be splashed across the pages of any newspaper tomorrow.”