A first look at Steven Soderbergh’s crime caper about the Panama Papers, which premieres at the Venice film festival later this week, has been released

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Twelve years since the release of heist sequel Ocean’s 13, Steven Soderbergh appears to be repeating the trick, with a pointed yet irreverent take on the Panama Papers scandal.

Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, each displaying colourful accents, play law partners Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, whose Panama City firm runs an off-shore tax scheme making billionaires richer and some unlucky nobodies poorer.

One of these is a fictitious widow, played by Meryl Streep, whose investigation of an insurance fraud leads to the uncovering of the firm’s dealings, and their links to the rich and powerful.

An adaptation of Jake Bernstein’s non-fiction book Secrecy World, the true investigation, led by journalists, was one Soderbergh has said he was keen to play down, feeling such a narrative arc was overfamiliar.

David Schwimmer, Matthias Shoenaerts and Sharon Stone co-star; the film premieres on Friday in Venice.