The cameras have started rolling in Toronto on Unless, a movie adaptation of Carol Shields’ last novel by director Alan Gilsenan.

The page-to-screen project is top-lined by Catherine Keener (Captain Philips, Capote), Matt Craven (Justified, Resurrection) and Hannah Gross (Valedictorian), and is structured as a Canada-Ireland coproduction.

Sienna Films and Irish partner Subotica are producing Unless, which also stars Chloe Rose (Hellions), Abigail Winter(Warehouse 13) and Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey).

Keener plays a writer and translator whose well-lived life disappears almost instantly when her eldest daughter Norah (played by Gross) drops out of college and is found pan-handling on a Toronto street corner, refusing to speak.

Jennifer Kawaja, Julia Sereny, Tristan Orpen Lynch and Aoife O’Sullivan share the producer credits on Unless, which has financing from Telefilm Canada, the OMDC, the Irish Film Board, Premiere Fund and Windmill Lane Pictures, and development funding from Super Channel.

International sales for Unless will be handled by Mongrel Media.