Sony Pictures International Productions has come on board to co-produce the feature film debut of up-and-coming Spanish filmmaker David Victori, greenlighting his horror thriller El Pacto (The Covenant) together with Spanish producers Ikiru Films and 4Cats Pictures.

El Pacto follows Monica, a mother who, faced with the unexpected and imminent death of her only daughter, descends into Hell itself to stop it from happening. Belen Rueda (The Orphanage) will play the lead, with fellow Spaniards Mireia Oriol and Dario Grandinetti co-starring.

“What would you be capable of doing to stop the death of a loved one and what happens to someone who tries to circumvent the natural course of life?” is how Victori describes the premise of the film. Jordi Vallejo (Night and Day) co-wrote the script with Victori.

Victori is a rising star on the Spanish scene. In 2012, he won the freshman edition of YouTube’s $500,000 Your Film Festival, an online competition for short films, with his 13-minute revenge drama The Guilt. Actor Michael Fassbender and Ridley Scott, who headed the YouTube jury, went on to co-produce Zero, Victori's award-winning follow-up short film in 2015.

“David’s universe has a very strong spiritual component,” said Edmon Roch and Jordi Gasull, who are producing El Pacto alongside Laine Kline of Sony Pictures International Productions. “For him there is a kind of mystery to life, and that Mystery, in capital letters, ensnared us. It’s a film that talks about Evil in some way. Evil or the Devil or whatever we want to call it always appears when we refuse to accept things the way they are.”

El Pacto is currently shooting on location in Barcelona. Sony Pictures Entertainment Iberia will release the film in Spain next year.

Read more at The Hollywood Reporter