New film ‘Omaha’ was inspired by a disastrous Nebraska law. It’s winning praise from critics.

Spoiler alert: This story reveals the surprising plot twist of the new movie “Omaha” in the opening paragraphs. 

An anxious father awakens his daughter and son from their beds for a surprise road trip. In little time, the kids and their dad are in the car headed for the unknown.

But the seemingly spur-of-the-moment excursion isn’t really a vacation — it’s an act of desperation. The man’s wife recently died and the bank just foreclosed on their Utah home. The only chance to give his kids a good life, the troubled father thinks, is in Nebraska, where lawmakers have just passed a Safe Haven Law that allows parents to abandon kids as old as 19 without criminal prosecution. 

That is the haunting narrative of the highly acclaimed new dramatic feature film “Omaha” set to premiere locally at Film Streams’ Dundee Theater on Thursday. Its director and its star will participate in a post-screening discussion of the film, which was partially shot in Nebraska. (Correction: This article incorrectly stated the theater where the film will premiere. It has been corrected.)

The characters and story are a fictional amalgamation of real life events. Nebraska’s Safe Haven Law passed in 2008 triggered a swift flood of parents, some from other states, abandoning their older children at area hospitals.

The aftermath made national news and immediately grabbed Robert Machoian, a writer and director who, as a practicing Mormon, did a mission in Nebraska as a young man. The scenes struck Machoian, himself a young struggling father at the time. He started penning the script shortly after the fallout of Nebraska’s haphazard law.

“My script isn’t far from the life that I was living,” he said, referring to his wife’s precarious health. 

“She’s always had health issues that for me as a husband and father has always been scary — the fear of losing her. So it wasn’t hard to imagine.” 

When the state’s Safe Haven Law, unlike similar laws in other states, failed to stipulate an age limit, the unintended chaos that resulted caused an outcry among child and family advocates. Criticism of the loophole that led to gut-wrenching scenes at hospitals prompted then-Gov. Dave Heineman to convene lawmakers for a special session to amend the law to allow the surrender of infants up to 30 days old. A 2024 law changed the cutoff to 90 days old.

As it stands now, babies can be left with employees at hospitals, staffed fire or police stations or emergency providers. The child must be unharmed to guarantee immunity. 

Before the original law was changed, 36 children — many considerably older than infants — had been abandoned. They instantly became wards of the state.

Machoian and children-family advocates agree the original bill was well intentioned but naive.

“Having a connection to Nebraska and knowing a couple people that worked at Boys Town, I knew the state has always been engaged in the well-being of children,” he said.

The intent of the law was to give mothers who felt they could not care for their child “a safe place” to have the child taken in, said Arnie Stuthman, the then-senator who introduced the bill. He and fellow lawmakers wanted to avoid child dumping.

But during the legislative process, a compromise replaced the specific age with the term “child.” That left-to-interpretation language opened the floodgates to older children being surrendered. Hospital staff were left to deal with tears and screams of families breaking apart. The devastating stories made news everywhere.

“I was very shocked,” Stuthman said of the sheer pain and scope of those separations. 

Most parents who took advantage of the law indicated they did so to ensure their children got access to resources for treating special needs or behavioral challenges they felt they could not provide.

Eighteen years have passed since the trauma of that Safe Haven crisis. Precisely what happened with the children involved is unknown due to confidentiality laws, though in all likelihood many were fostered, some possibly adopted.

Machoian, the writer-director of indie features “The Killing of Two Lovers” and “The Integrity of Joseph Chambers,” was living in Utah when the Safe Haven mess unfolded and he started writing the script. He originally called it “Nebraska.” After the release of Alexander Payne’s 2013 film of the same name, Machoian changed his script’s title to “Omaha.”

He tried to find support that would allow him to make and direct the film himself but got little traction. Years later, director Cole Webley approached Machoian to see if he had any unproduced projects. Machoian shared “Omaha.” Webley was so struck by the story that he asked to direct it. Machoian, still hoping to direct, initially hesitated. But he came to trust Webley’s vision and handed it over.

“It’s been a great learning experience that some things I write I’ll make and others maybe the purpose is for someone else to make them,” said Machoian.

Webley’s producing partner Preston Lee and the production company Sanctuary Content ended up financing it.

“I just loved the script,” said Webley. “And then whether or not I could execute it was a little scarier thought. But as a reader, I was just so taken by Robert’s writing.”

Part of what made this a must-make project, Webley said, was how personally Machoian invested himself in it. The cases of distraught parents making impossible choices resonated with Machoian. There was even an instance of a widowed father of 10 giving up nine of his kids at Creighton University Medical Center’s ER. 

Machoian tried to put himself in his protagonist’s state of mind. He even made a road trip with his kids to Nebraska.

“As a writer whose head space was in exploring this material, I wasn’t the most fun on that car ride because I was imagining what a struggling father must be dealing with,” he said. “My kids were wondering what was going on with me.”

Some “Omaha” dialogue comes directly from his and his kids’ interactions on that trip.

Neither Machoian nor Webley were interested in criticizing or demonizing the actions of parents who reach their breaking point. 

“A lot of the abandonment came out of shame and not taking these kids to family who could have taken them before the system,” said Webley, whose own parents fostered two of his cousins when their own parents could not due to drug addiction.

When it came time to cast the lead role, Webley knew he needed to find an actor who could capture the agony of the predicament the dad finds himself in.

“This dad has to walk this very thin line of neither villain nor hero, and that’s a tricky place to be,” Webley said. “It had to be this father who was an Everyman of sorts but at the same time had a gravitas and humanity and depth to him that could project how important of a story this was.”

Webley secured his first choice: John Magaro, an actor praised for his turns in “First Cow,” “Past Lives” and “The Big Short.” Magaro said once he read the script, he was in. Like Webley, Magaro said the story resonated with him as a father.

“Yeah, I mean it speaks to you if you’re a parent,” he said. “You can’t help but put yourself in this situation and pray that it never happens to you.”

Webley got what he wanted. “My dream was to have him (Magaro) do it and he did not disappoint.” Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis play the children and turn in equally impressive performances.

Most of the film was shot in Utah and Wyoming. Only a few rural Nebraska landscapes make it on screen until the family arrives in the city that gives the film its name. A poignant scene at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo foreshadows what’s to come.

“Omaha” is the latest in a long line of road trip pics that have shot in-state: “The Rain People” (1969); “Paper Moon” (1972); “To Wong Foo” (1996); “Love from Ground Zero” (1998); “About Schmidt” (2002); “Elizabethtown” (2005); “Nebraska” (2013); “American Honey” (2016); “Nomadland” (2020); “Bones and All” (2022).

Webley was enchanted by Nebraska’s “far horizons.” 

“I love the contrast it has with all that landscape, then arriving in Omaha,” Webley said. “You better believe we did that drive with the crew. The actors took a plane at a certain point. But the rest of us drove across the plains of Wyoming and the long push across Nebraska. We loved it. It was great shooting there.”

Machoian got to know Nebraska during his mission, which included time living in Omaha, Lincoln and North Platte. Having grown up in rural central California, Machoian said he feels a familiarity with Nebraska’s vast open spaces.

“Nebraska to me is a very beautiful place and very cinematic,” he said. “I mean, even now I often think about ideas that I could write for there and shoot for there.” 

He wishes he could be there for his new film’s Omaha premiere, especially after seeing how Webley brought his story to life. 

“When Cole sent me a first cut, I was watching it as much as I could with fresh eyes and seeing how he interpreted the material. For me, that was very exciting and emotional. With how well it’s doing and being received, it’s everything I had hoped for the film.”