Ahead of the Cannes market later this month, Variety has reported Naomi Watts (Feud), Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), Bella Ramsay (The Last of Us) and Odessa Young (The Staircase) have been cast in Guy Nattiv’s Harmonia, a drama based on a true story within the director’s family.
Harmonia tells the story of Nattiv’s grandmother who left his family in the 1980s to join a cult. The official synopsis reads:
Set in the 1980s, Rita (Watts) is entranced by the mesmeric leader (Krieps) and renounces her family to embrace the world of the enigmatic Harmonia commune. Her daughters, Ella (Ramsey), and Jo (Young), put everything on the line to infiltrate the cult and bring their mother back home. Yet, once immersed in the commune, they find themselves inexorably drawn into the leader’s labyrinthine web of psycho-spiritual manipulation.
The film is written by Nattiv and Noa Berman-Herzberg with Julia Lebedev and Eddie Vaisman for Sight Unseen, Jaime Ray Newman for New Native Pictures and Oren Moverman producing. Embankment Films, Range Media Partners and CAA Media Finance will launch pre-sales for Cannes.
“I have been waiting decades until I was emotionally ready to confront my beloved grandmother’s story, which has haunted my family since I was a child,” said Nattiv. “As a woman in the 1980s going through a midlife crisis, my grandmother made the radical choice to leave my family and embed herself in an all-female cult, in an obsessive pursuit of happiness and meaning. The core of this movie is today’s very real, beguiling, and profligate threat of coercion and manipulation by any cult of dominant personality. I am honored to collaborate on my most personal film with the brilliant Naomi, Vicky, Bella and Odessa, who will bring their extraordinary talents to the terrifying and unique world of ‘Harmonia.'”
“Harmonia is captivating, unsettling, timely and deeply honest. It wrestles intricate family dynamics with the alluring power of cult, interrogating how far we will go to protect those we most cherish whilst facing the pulse of temptation. Prepare yourself for a chilling ascent into real psychological fear,” said Embankment’s Hugo Grumbar.
Harmonia will begin production this fall.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
