THE NEST is a tense and absorbing drama that explores themes of masculinity, gender roles and family structure by examining a family who are seemingly living a great life in New York at a very specific time and place. This happens when the father gets the opportunity to move back to his native England for a tantalising employment opportunity.
The O’Hara family, who live a seemingly great life in a New York suburb at first glance appears to be just another ordinary, upwardly mobile American family but then the cracks start to show when the reality and the disintegration of the middle-class dream becomes a nightmare due, to the stress of the move.
Director Sean Durkin explores a different angle – the family dynamics and emotional upheaval of such a move in THE NEST.
Watch the trailer here:
Set in the 1980’s the move is apparently a dream come true for the father, Rory O’Hara (Jude Law). However, for his wife, Allison (Carrie Coon), and the couple’s two children, Samantha (Oona Roche) and Ben (Charlie Shotwell), it presents an extreme version of culture shock. The couple have to face unwelcome truths lying beneath the surface of their marriage while Ben is bullied and Sam rebels and the promise of a lucrative new beginning starts to unravel.
Many of the themes are universal and very relevant today.
“Growing up between America and England in the 1980s and 1990s, I experienced a stark difference in atmosphere between the two places that has long stayed with me. I always felt the contrast would provide a haunting tonal shift in a film and this backdrop sparked the conception of THE NEST,” explains the director. “Within this setting I wanted to reflect on personal experience to create an unsettling, naturalistic family drama that explores how a move across the Atlantic uproots the dormant truths that lie beneath this family’s dynamic.”
The film is distributed by Filmfinity (Pty) Ltd. and will be released in South African cinemas on 24 December 2020.