Longing OTT release date in India: Here's when and where you can stream Richard Gere's dramatic feature

Richard Gere's Longing will premiere on JioCinema as a dramatic reimagining of the 2017 Israeli film.

Longing poster

Longing starring Richard Gere and Diane Kruger will soon be available on OTT in India. Savi Gabizon penned and directed the dramatic feature in 2024, starring Suzanne Clément in a pivotal role. It is a reimagining of an Israeli film from 2017 by Gabizon. The film will begin streaming on JioCinema (OTTplay Premium) on December 7, 2024.

Plot overview

Unexpected turns of a new existence quickly engulf Daniel Bloch (Gere) in this enthralling English adaptation of the acclaimed film, surprising him with a shocking secret about his past. As he meets new people, Daniel learns more about this intriguing enigma until he reaches a turning point in his own life.

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Savi Gabizon wrote and directed both versions. The plot and characters are identical: a wealthy American businessman (Gere), who is single and has a son, discovers upon their reunion that his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend (Suzanne Clément) has also recently died in a car crash. In an effort to make sense of it all and establish a relationship, he goes to his son's school and house, meets his friend who sells cannabis, confronts the girlfriend he may have abused, and defends his newfound son without reservation to everyone.

Inspiration behind the story

Earlier, Gabizon spoke with Deadline about how producer Alexander Vinnitski was enamoured with the original Longing and sought American collaborators to produce the Hollywood version. Gere eventually received the script and found it equally captivating. The most significant change, in his opinion, was in the conversation, he added. People's speech patterns vary from culture to culture, so we adjusted the English to sound "less direct" and "more subtle" compared to the Israeli version.

Nevertheless, the adaptation was a failure. The critics' score for the film is 27% on Rotten Tomatoes.

A father's life, according to Gabizon, was the inspiration for the notion. The filmmaker, sitting in the stands when his son began playing football at the age of 11, noticed that his leg would move slightly whenever he caught the ball. This whole story started, in his opinion, in just a few millimetres.

Gabizon revealed that the plot, initially grounded in his daily life, strayed into other realms and assumed various forms. However, occasionally, its genuine features emerge from beneath the layers of makeup. One way to look at longing is as an exploration of parenthood.

The filmmaker has always aimed to craft a film filled with absurd situations, as they facilitate the exploration of profound emotions without succumbing to sentimentality and clichés.

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