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"The stories we tell help us work out who we want to be, and this one is filled with warmth, humor, love, and joy," said director Sophie Hyde, whose nonbinary child Aud stars in the film.
An upcoming queer family film will star Olivia Colman and John Lithgow alongside Aud Mason-Hyde — a nonbinary actor making their feature film debut.
Jimpa follows Hannah (Colman) and her trans nonbinary teenager Frances (Mason-Hyde) as they travel Amsterdam to visit their gay grandfather "Jimpa" (Lithgow). Frances wants to stay abroad with Jimpa for a year, forcing Hannah to "reconsider her beliefs about parenting and finally confront old stories about the past," according to a synopsis via Variety.
The film is directed by Sophie Hyde, Mason-Hyde's mother and the director behind Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, who also wrote the screenplay with Matthew Cormack. Hyde said in a statement that the story is "very personal one, and making it is filled with some sadness and a lot of joy."
"I’m particularly treasuring that I get to work with my child Aud in their feature film debut," she said. "The stories we tell help us work out who we want to be, and this one is filled with warmth, humor, love, and joy.”
Colman most recently starred in The Lost Daughter, with Lithgow also earning acclaim for his role in Killers of the Flower Moon. Both have worked on hit series The Crown, though on separate seasons.
Jimpa is currently in its third week of filming in Amsterdam. Production will afterwards move to Adelaide, Australia and Helsinki, Finland.
While the film is ultimately uplifting, it doesn't shy away from difficult conversations. Producer Liam Heyen highlighted the film's mission to portray queer people as "real, flawed, and worthy."
“For a long time, I have admired Sophie’s directorial ability to tell intimate stories with scale and audience appeal, so it’s an immense privilege to be working alongside her to bring Jimpa to life,” added producer Liam Heyen. “I strive to produce work that portrays members of the LBGTQI+ community as real, flawed, and worthy people and explore the contradiction that our lives have both everything and nothing to do with our gender identity or sexuality.”
