K5 Intl., the international sales arm of K5 Media Group, has acquired world sales rights excluding North America to “Stay Online,” a tense Ukraine war drama that was entirely shot in the Eastern European country after the Russian invasion, the company announced at the European Film Market.
The film, which debuted last year at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival, recently sold to Dark Star Pictures for North American distribution in a deal brokered by XYZ Films. A U.S. release is planned for late Q2 2024.
Set after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the film begins when a young woman (Liza Zaitseva) volunteering in Kyiv is given one of the thousands of laptops donated by ordinary Ukrainians to support the war effort. She’s asked to install a sensitive military application and deliver the laptop to her brother serving on the frontline.
But the woman receives a mysterious video call from a young boy searching for his father, the laptop’s previous owner, who went missing during the Russian army’s brutal massacre of civilians in Bucha. Reluctantly, she agrees to help find his missing parents — a decision that will ultimately force her to risk the lives of her own loved ones.
The feature directorial debut of Yeva Strielnikova, “Stay Online” was written by Strielnikova and Anton Skrypets and produced by AMO Pictures, Mamas Production and the Organization of Ukrainian Producers’ fiction arm, OUP Fiction. The producers are Skrypets, Anatolii Dudinskyi, Maryna Kvasova and Alla Lipovetska.
“The dedication and dynamism of our team at K5 absolutely guarantee the global success of ‘Stay Online,’” said OUP co-founder Igor Storchak. “In these challenging times, it’s crucial to connect with someone who is truly fired up about their work, and we’re fully confident that Daniel Baur and the K5 sales squad will ensure our film reaches audiences across the globe.”
Speaking to PvNew last year ahead of the film’s premiere, Strielnikova insisted that “it is impossible to comprehend the horror that is happening in our country.
“The war is destructive,” she said. “Many people cannot shoot or write at such times. I wanted to write. After all, we are all different and perceive things in a different way. Some people fall silent in severe stressful situations, while others, on the contrary, mobilize all resources. Our film shows it all. During the war, some people go forward and some go back,” she continued. “Therefore, for some people the war is destructive, and for others it becomes a way to express his or her creativity. Many people have opened up just because they had something to say.”
The director added: “I hope that our feelings will be heard and seen. And the more people watch our movie worldwide, and the more we talk about the war and increase attention to it, the more we all will be reminded of the need for struggle and action.”
