In theaters April 14.

The new film by Academy Award® nominated director Joseph Cedar (FOOTNOTE) is a comic and compassionate drama of a little man whose downfall is rooted in a human frailty all too easy to forgive: a need to matter.

Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) lives a lonely life in the margins of New York City power and money, a would-be operator dreaming up financial schemes that never come to fruition. As he has nothing real to offer, Norman strives to be everyone’s friend, but his incessant networking leads him nowhere. Always on the lookout for someone willing to pay attention to him, Norman sets his sights on Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), a charismatic Israeli politician alone in New York at a low point in his career. Sensing Eshel’s vulnerability, Norman reaches out with a gift of a very expensive pair of shoes, a gesture that deeply touches Eshel. When Eshel becomes Prime Minister three years later, he remembers. With his very real connection to the leader of a major nation, Norman is awash in the respect he has always craved. Flush with his newfound feeling of success, Norman attempts to use Eshel’s name to leverage his biggest deal ever: a series of quid pro quo transactions linking the Prime Minister to Norman’s nephew (Michael Sheen), a rabbi (Steve Buscemi), a mogul (Harris Yulin), his assistant (Dan Stevens), and a treasury official from the Ivory Coast. Norman’s kaleidoscopic plans soon go awry, creating the potential for an international catastrophe he must struggle to prevent.

Starring: Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi, Michael Sheen, Steve Buscemi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dan Stevens, Hank Azaria, Harris Yulin, and Josh Charles

Directed by: Joseph Cedar
Written by: Joseph Cedar
Produced by: Oren Moverman, Gideon Tadmor, Eyal Rimmon, David Mandil, Miranda Bailey, and Lawrence Inglee
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics

Runtime: 118 minutes
Rated R

Left to right: Richard Gere as Norman Oppenheimer and Lior Ashkenazi as Micha Eshel. Photo by Niko Tavernise. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Left to right: Michael Sheen as Philip Cohen, Lior Ashkenazi as Micha Eshel, and Richard Gere as Norman Oppenheimer. Photo by Seacia Pavao. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.