Guns & Moses

Guns & Moses^[3] (formerly titled Man in the Long Black Coat) is a 2025 American crime thriller film written by Nina Davidovich Litvak and Salvador Litvak, directed by Salvador Litvak and starring Mark Feuerstein, Neal McDonough, Dermot Mulroney and Christopher Lloyd. It premiered in the 2024 Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival and was released theatrically on July 18, 2025 by Pictures From The Fringe and Concourse Media.^[4]

A beloved rabbi in a high desert town becomes an unlikely gunfighter after his community is violently attacked.^[5]

Rabbi Moses (Moyshe) Zaltzman, with his wife and 5 children, is an Orthodox Rabbi (Chabad, though it's never mentioned and shows up only subtly) in the town of High Desert, California. At a town gala for the High Desert Jewish Center (synagogue) where local philanthropist Alan Rosner is being honoured for his contributions to the community, Rosner pledges $2 million to the Center just before he is shot by an unkonwn assailant.

The local police arrest Clay Gibbons, who has a history of Nazi-like threatening of the Jewish community. Everyone except the Rabbi thinks Clay is guilty. The Rabbi had an experience of welcoming Clay when he was threatening the community, and teaching him about the Holocaust and Jewish history (with the help of Sol Fassbinder, a Holocaust survivor who tells his story first-hand), and keeps saying that since Clay "ate the brownie" the Rabbi had offered, Clay couldn't be guilty.

The story develops with additional murders of key characters, and the issue appears to be about a land deal. The synagogue's security person, non-Jewish Brenda Navarro, insists that the Rabbi and his wife get training in how to shoot, and insists that the Rabbi carry a gun.

In the end, the local police and mayor, who had been in the military together, had framed Clay and they try to kill the Rabbi and his family. With the help of allies including Clay and his father and Navarro, the Rabbi and his family win out in the end, and the bad guys are killed.

• Mark Feuerstein as Rabbi Mo Zaltzman
• Neal McDonough as Mayor Donovan Kirk
• Dermot Mulroney as Alan Rosner
• Christopher Lloyd as Sol Fassbinder
• Alona Tal as Hindy Zaltzman
• Jake Busey as Owen Gibbons
• Craig Sheffer as Tibor Farkas
• Michael B. Silver as Jeff Rosner
• Zach Villa as Detective Nestor
• Ed Quinn as Detective Wallace
• Gabrielle Ruiz as Brenda Navarro
• Mercedes Mason as Liat Rosner
• Jackson Dunn as Clay Gibbons
• Mila Brener as Esty Zaltzman
• JuJu Brener as Dini Zaltzman
• Joshua Gallup as Yossi Zaltzman

From his warm and caring character, the shape of his hat, and the general role Rabbi Moyshe and his family play in their small community, they seem to be Chabad Lubavitch, though it's never mentioned. The only explicit clue is near the end, when he's praying at home before the bad guys are expected to attack, and when he closes his siddur (prayer book) it's recognizable as the Chabad "Tehillat Hashem" siddur.

In December 2022, it was announced that Feuerstein, McDonough, Mulroney and Lloyd were cast in the film and that filming began in Santa Clarita, California.^[6] In January 2023, it was announced that Tal, Busey and Sheffer, as well as other actors, were cast in the film.^[7]

The film premiered at the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival on June 19, 2024.^[8] It was theatrically released in the United States on July 18, 2025.^[9]

A second theatrical release is scheduled for September 7, 2025 through September 11, 2025.^[10]

• Guns & Moses at IMDb
• Guns & Moses official website