TIFF Teaser: Inescapable, sort of like Taken, but with more Syrian politics and less Liam Neeson

Inescapable is one of only two Canadian films to get the gala treatment this year (the other is Deepa Mehta’s adaptation of Midnight’s Children). The film, which was shot in Toronto, has already been pegged as a Syrian-flavoured Taken: Alexander Siddig plays a mild-mannered father forced to return to Damascus after a 30-year absence when his vacationing daughter goes missing. He enlists the help of a former flame (Marisa Tomei), encounters a bothersome bureaucrat (Joshua Jackson) and is remarkably quick in his Liam Neeson-esque transformation—asses are kicked, names are taken. The film is Toronto-based writer-director Ruba Nadda’s first thriller, and we’re hoping her taste for politically charged drama (her film Cairo Time won Best Canadian Feature at TIFF 2009) will add dimension to the action.