The studio acquired rights to screen the novel of a writer they call Ukrainian Stephen King and starts work on the project
FILM.UA Group enters a new genre territory. Work started on a feature based on a popular detective thriller by Ukrainian writer Polina Kulakova, The Girl We Killed. Project creative producer Olesya Lukyanenko says:
“I read the book by Polina Kulakova in one night and immediately thought, here’s a plot for the film. The following day I emailed the author with a screening offer. FILM.UA hasn’t yet made any horrors though it is among the most popular genres in the world. So we’ll try to enter a new genre territory and break the stereotype that Ukrainian films are only successful in cinemas if they are comedies.”
An incredible psychological thriller The Girl We Killed became a bestseller of House of Chimeras, which has now published a second edition of the novel. It is set in Ivano-Frankivsk in late 2000s. This is a story of several teenagers and the event that changed their lives. They were five friends and daredevils. And there was Lida, a girl in a dress. And an innocent pastime, jumping over the fire. Who knew that a sparkle landing on a nylon dress will cause a tragedy? Who knew that jump will become fatal for Lida? They’ll get together again in seventeen years to restore old friendship. But somebody will want to avenge. Who will it be? Who will make them “jump”? One by one, the mysterious avenger will kill off friends. And it looks like the terrible trap has been prepared beforehand.
Polina Kulakova is an author of novels and short prose in the genres of mystic detectives, social and psychological thrillers. The Girl We Killed is the writer’s third novel. This is how she comments screening plans:
“It seems to me that almost every contemporary writer aspires to big print runs, translations into foreign languages, and screenings. I am no exception. Seeing my own story on a screen is a brave fantasy! When I read a message from producer Olesya Lukyanenko I understood what it really was and felt infinite happiness. The dream became closer to its fulfillment, somebody pinch me! The Girl We Killed is a record-breaker among all my works. It is the most popular and recognizable. That is why I am looking forward to the day I’ll be able to see its transformation in the cinema.”
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The screening of The Girl We Killed would match a global trend which promises great prospects for the movie, first of all due to the 1990s back in fashion, which were portrayed in cinema via slashers and horrors.
Work on the script has been started. The premiere is expected in 2023.
Creative producer: Olesya Lukyanenko
Screenwriter: Yaroslav Voytseshek
Logline: Due to a bad joke a teenage girl tragically died. Many years after that event five friends who pushed her towards the fire get together and find themselves in lethal danger.
Based on The Girl We Killed, a novel by Polina Kulakova.
Premiere: 2023.
