THE ORCHARD

THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT

In Theaters March 15, 2019

Directed by Kim Nguyen
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Mando & Salma Hayek

SYNOPSIS — Cousins from New York, Vincent (Jesse Eisenberg) and Anton (Alexander Skarsgård) are players in the high-stakes game of high frequency trading, where winning is measured in milliseconds. Vincent is the hustler and Anton is the brains; together they push each other and everyone around them in their quixotic quest to attain the ultimate American Dream.

Embarking on the Herculean task of installing a fiber-optic cable in a straight line
between Kansas and New Jersey — so they can yield faster trades and greater riches — the cousins clash with their rapacious former boss, Eva Torres (Salma Hayek), a hedge-fund manager who tries to beat them at their own game using a rival technology. Racing against time, navigating heavy machinery, stubborn landowners, and the elements, Vincent and Anton move mountains to cut through America and get rich faster — only to find redemption and renewal at the end of the line.

From writer-director Kim Nguyen (War Witch, nominated for the Academy Award
for Best Foreign Language Film) comes a modern-day David & Goliath story that is equal parts financial thriller and human drama, excavating the pitfalls and perils of two men who risk everything in order to have it all.

WHAT’S THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT?
At once a high-stakes financial thriller with a global cast, gripping cautionary tale on the perils of rapacious greed, and thoughtful human drama about reclaiming life’s essentials, Montreal-born writer-director Kim Nguyen’s The Hummingbird Project is a story for our up-to-the-minute times — where a millisecond can determine fortune or failure, and the next big technological advancement could wipe out today’s way of doing things almost instantly.

The story centers on high-frequency trader cousins Vincent and Anton Zaleski (Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgård), second-generation Eastern European New Yorkers who leave their Wall Street trading-floor jobs to construct a fiber-optic line stretching from the Midwest to the East Coast, guaranteeing faster trades. The film’s title suggests an inconceivable task: laying a cable in the earth that can transfer data from Kansas to New York in the time it takes a hummingbird to flap its wings.

The Hummingbird Project also speaks to the ridiculousness of our monetary pursuits — and the humanity behind getting rich quick. “Kim Nguyen has taken this massive, real-world concept of high frequency trading and placed two unique and unusual people in the middle of it,” says Jesse Eisenberg, who plays the irrepressible protagonist Vincent Zaleski. “While ambitious in scope and a powerful commentary on the absurdity of our financial institutions, at its core The Hummingbird Project is character-driven. This is the rare story about something timely and important in which the characters propel the plot.”

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