Insyriated

Director: Philippe van Leeuw

Country: Belgium

Running Time: 85′

London Premiere 

Year: 2017

An ordinary family go through the most nightmarish of ordeals in Insyriated, veteran Belgian cinematographer Phillipe Van Leeuw’s politicised take on the home invasion thriller. Focusing on a well-to-do, middle class Syrian family – an antidote to the brand of Middle Eastern characters typically making it onto the big screen – Van Leeuw’s film unfolds over a single day inside a spacious apartment, as a family find that the civil war has arrived at their doorstep. Gripping, claustrophobic and unbearably tense, the drama is held together by towering performances from lead actors Hiam Abbas and Diamand Bou Abboud. An utterly gripping account of a household under siege.