Chicano Trouble: Fernando Eimbcke Taps into Youth Portrait with “Olmo”

Duck Season (2004), Lake Tahoe (2008) and Club Sandwich (2013) Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke is set to move further up the border with his return to feature fiction filmmaking. Eimbcke has mounted a coming-of-age film that is set in 80’s New Jersey and goes by the titular Olmo. Vanesa Garnica is a co-writer.

Plan B Entertainment’s Academy Award winning producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner teamed up with Eréndira Núñez Larios (who we just mentioned might be working on a new Michel Franco project) to produce the mount the project which was originally being eyed for a July shoot but instead will focus on September (possibly further delayed by the strike). Regardless of what the start date is, this should fall onto the 2024 fall film festival circuit.

The story is set in 1980’s New Jersey and follows Olmo, a fourteen-year old first generation Mexican American teenage boy, as he grapples with his father’s declining health. Despite being a caregiver to his father, Olmo is also a typical mischief-maker, dealing with the challenges of puberty such as unstable temperament, acne-prone brown skin, and a preoccupation with sex.