“Do you think I’m afraid of a jail sentence?” asks Susan Sarandon in the first trailer for Maryam Keshavarz’s “Viper Club.” The drama sees the Oscar winner playing Helen, the mother of a war correspondent who has been taken hostage in Syria. The ER nurse is willing to risk a jail sentence — and pretty much anything else — if it means getting her son home safe.
Official channels leave Helen feeling hopeless. The government tells her that their plan to retrieve her son is “classified,” and it’s unclear if such a plan actually exists. When Helen learns of a secret community who may be able to help her, she’s all ears. But she’ll need to raise $20 million for them to save her son.
“You have to deal with the consequences of your decision: do you scrape together enough money to spread around some Middle Eastern bribery network or do you just decide to swallow the awful thought that maybe you could have done something more?” Helen is told.
“Viper Club” marks Keshavarz’s follow-up to her first feature, 2011’s “Circumstance.” She directed an episode of OWN family drama “Queen Sugar’s” second season.
Catch “Viper Club” in theaters beginning October 26. The film will be available for streaming on YouTube Premium in 2019. Matt Bomer (“American Horror Story”) co-stars.
