INESCAPABLE: Ruba Nadda On Alexander Siddig, Syria, and More

MovieFone Canada has a new interview with Inescapable writer/director Ruba Nadda in which she talks about setting the film in Syria, Alexander Siddig as the film’s lead, and more. This is also the first article I’ve seen where the interviewer has obviously screened the movie, so there are some (positive) comments about the story and performances as well.

Finally we’re getting Alexander Siddig in a lead role – what is it about him that draws in the viewer?
You know what it is? He’s so masculine to me. He’s the quintessential Arab man. He’s a really good actor, too. I knew I wanted him to be in “[easyazon-link asin=”B0041KT3NK”]Cairo Time[/easyazon-link],” and in this movie, I knew he could be a little angrier, a bit more contained, and I knew he would be perfect for the role.

I feel like his character is simmering for most of the movie, until the end.
Exactly. Alexander and I talked about that. In another movie like this, I would imagine the father going absolutely ballistic, but this is a character that feels so much guilt, because he knows that his daughter’s disappearance is his fault. He doesn’t have time to react. It’s a very selfless thing that he does — he holds it together until the end. And he has to, because he has to find her. A child disappearing anywhere is a horrible, horrible thing, but a child disappearing in Damascus is something else entirely.

He manages to communicate that with those eyes of his.
I know! People always ask me about this. For me, as a director, it’s the eyes. His eyes have me. I don’t know what it is. He’s so subtle and he has your heart. He’s minimalist, but it works. I don’t know how he does it.

(Read the full interview here…)