Conversation: The Making of Arbitrage

• October 12, 2012
• Article

12.10.2012 - On Thursday ADFF's  sixth edition kicked off with the much-anticipated Arbitrage as the Opening Night film. The feature-directorial debut of award-winning writer and producer Nicholas Jarecki, Arbitrage stars iconic actor and Richard Gere as a ruthless corporate hedge-fund manager whose financial empire unravels after the accidental death of his mistress. It's a performance that critics are calling a new career highlight. Among Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth and other luminaries, the film co-stars Nate Parker, who was recently named by Variety as one of ten up-and-coming actors to watch.

The next morning, ADFF's Special Events lineup for this year opened in turn with a press conference and panel discussion on the making of Arbitrage with Festival guests Jarecki, Gere and Parker in attendance. Also present was Mohamed Al Turki, producer of the film and no stranger to Gulf shores. Having successfully bridged the gap between East and West, he promised a unique experience to filmgoers in the UAE with this powerful thriller.

The stars were greeted with a warm reception at the event, which took place in the Ballroom at Emirates Palace. Gere went out of his way to thank everyone for their presence and further added that he felt very welcome in Abu Dhabi. He also revealed that Abu Dhabi would ideally be the next location he shoots in, with some production in the pipeline already.

Speaking about the film, Jarecki explained the reasons that drove him to write and direct a story that combines family drama, corporate intrigue and crime thriller. The answer is surprisingly existential. "Back in the day, people were experiencing a strong prevalence of the class structure in society and its irrevocable impact on the human psyche. These people then started to wonder what they could do, and those decisions had consequences. This complex web of ethos and reactions were paired with the ultimate question: What does it really take to be someone?"

Gere further added to this saying "We used to make a lot of these movies in the '70s and '80s that were intelligent and character driven, and dealt with our times in our lives. In the end it is not about the financial world, it is about our personal sense of morality and how our decisions are not compartmentalized. Everything we do resonates through everything else. It goes through our business decisions; it goes through our family, through our idea of how we relate to other people."

Parker, whose character plays a young man unexpectedly caught up in the web of intrigue spun by Gere's Robert Miller, seconded this view of interconnectedness, saying he appreciated the way Jarecki's screenplay showed the financial crisis "affected people from every part of society, whether rich, poor or middle class." To him the film is about "relationships that don't have a name" - Miller is a "father figure" to Parker's Jimmy Grant, despite their very different backgrounds - showing the sometimes dark consequences of each person's action on other humans.

For Gere this human touch made the film's social critique that much more resident. "That's why I personally related to this subject. It wasn't about the financial world; it's about how we place ourselves in the universe."

Melissa Khan