Reel Suspects Closes Raft of Deals on Kirill Sokolov’s ‘Why Don’t You Just Die!’ (EXCLUSIVE)

By Elsa Keslassy

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Reel Suspects has closed a flurry of sales on Kirill Sokolov’s feature debut “Why Don’t You Just Die!” which recently won two awards at the .

The Russian movie, which world premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and was acquired by in March, has been picked up by Arrow for the U.S. and the U.K., Alamode for Germany and Austria, Wild bunch for France, King Record for Japan, Koch for Italy, Borsalino for Latin America, Mayfly for Poland, Laon-I for South Korea, Njuta for Scandinavia, Machi Xcelsior for Taiwan. Reel Suspects is in negotiations to close deals in more countries.

“Why Don’t You Just Die!” is an action-packed comedy thriller starring Aleksandr Kuznetsov (“Leto”) as a young man who gets enlisted by his girlfriend to kill her abusive father, a corrupt detective, and shows up at their Moscow home armed with a hammer.

Sokolov said the film’s reflects on “the realities of life in Russia, modern relationships, and societal attitudes.”

He added that the film is intended as an “emotional rollercoaster, making the audience laugh, cry, and laugh again – but then immediately feel a sense of unease for having laughed.”

Kevin Lambert, the head of catalogue at Arrow, described “Why Don’t You Just Die!” as a “knockout debut from an extremely talented filmmaker who definitely has a bright future ahead of him.”

“We were extremely impressed with the concept and relentlessness of both the gore and the comedy that the film brings to the screen,” said Lambert.

Reel Suspects’s CEO, Matteo Lodavina, said the daring film has proven to be “a great hit both with festival programmers and buyers.”