The official Stay Online trailer for the upcoming Ukrainian thriller has been revealed, featuring a woman trying to help a kid find his missing parents during the war. The screenlife film was the first Ukrainian movie filmed during the country’s Russian invasion.
Stay Online will have its world premiere at the 2023 Fantasia Festival this coming Saturday, July 22. The release date for its U.S. debut hasn’t been announced yet, with XYZ Films currently handling its North American sales.
Check out the Stay Online trailer below (watch more trailers):
What to Expect in Stay Online?
“The film follows a young woman (Liza Zaitseva) volunteering in Kyiv after she receives one of the thousands of laptops donated by ordinary Ukrainians to support the war effort,” reads the synopsis. “After installing a sensitive military application, the woman receives a mysterious video call from a superhero-obsessed young boy. The boy is searching for his father, the laptop’s previous owner, who went missing during the Russian army’s invasion of 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.”
Stay Online is directed by Yeva Strielnikova from a screenplay co-written by Strielnikova and Anton Skrypets. It is produced by Skrypets, Anatolii Dudinskyi, Maryna Kvasova, and Alla Lipovetska. The film hails from AMO Pictures, Mamas Production, and OUP Fiction.
According to the filmmaker, the project was inspired by “many stories of volunteers who helped the residents of Irpen and Buchi to evacuate.” The main character serves as “a collective image of our heroic girls who, risking their lives, tried to save the lives of other Ukrainians.”
