“Pet Shop Days” by Olmo Schnabel

2023 · color · UK · EN · 110’ · In competition · Swiss premiere

In an act of desperation, impulsive black sheep Alejandro flees his home in Mexico. On the run from his unforgiving father, Alejandro finds himself in New York City where he meets Jack, a college age pet store employee with similar parental baggage. Together the two enter a whirlwind romance sending them down the rabbit hole of drugs and depravity in Manhattan’s underworld. When Alejandro’s past threatens to catch up with him, Jack is forced to choose between his family and a life on the run.

THE DIRECTOR

Olmo Schnabel is an American filmmaker. Schnabel first began his work in cinema on the set of 2018’s AT ETERNITY’S GATE, and shortly thereafter, produced his first feature film GIANTS BEING LONELY alongside writer/director Grear Patterson. A moody, ethereal piece about high school students exploring rocky relationships, unrequited love, family tensions, and deep loneliness, the film premiered at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival and had the distinction of being the only American production accepted in the Orizzonti section of that year’s edition.

Schnabel’s directorial debut PET SHOP DAYS, for which he also co-wrote and produced, will have its World Premiere at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival. The film is an iridescent coming-of-age story that follows two young boys who engage in a whirlwind affair that sends them down a rabbit hole of vice. PET SHOP DAYS stars Jack Irv, Darío Yazbek Bernal, Willem Dafoe, and Peter Saarsgard, and is the first project produced under Schnabel and co-writer/producer Galen Core’s banner TWIN. Schnabel maintains residence in New York City and Mexico City.

CREDITS

Directed by
Olmo Schnabel

Screenplay by
Jack Irv Olmo Schnabel Galen Core

Story by
Jack Irv

Produced by
Galen Core, Olmo Schnabel ,Alex Coco, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Gabriele Moratti, Marie Savare De Laitre