With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emerging as a global hero, global rights management company Echo Rights has licensed the 2016 television series Servant of the People, created and starring him.
Variety reports that the rights have been sold to Channel 4 in the UK, MBC in the Middle East, ANT1 in Greece and Pro TV in Romania.
Eco Rights Managing Director Fredrik AF Malmborg shared the news and said that his company stands “in solidarity with our friends and partners in Ukraine”. He continued: “It is our position to share this story with the best the global television industry can support Ukraine today.”
Season three of the political comedy series, presented by Zelensky’s production house Quartel 95, was broadcast on the Ukrainian 1+1 channel and was adapted into a feature film after its successful first season in 2016. Belarusian TV channel, Belarus-1, is broadcasting it since November 2019.
Nikola Soderlund, managing partner at Echo, said: “The series is a comedy, but it is also an important document of where Zelensky comes from. Its fictional president is an ordinary man, who grows into his role as a heroic and beloved leader. Is.”
Söderlund said: “While the real-world scenario facing Zelensky and the Ukrainian people is far more grim and frightening than the comedy of the series, there are clear parallels with the real-world situation, and ‘Servants of the People’. ‘ A fascinating, important and historical piece of television.”
In a classic case of fiction before reality, Zelensky plays the main character, Vasil Petrovich Holoborodko, an absent-minded high school history teacher who is elected President of Ukraine after his unholy rant about corruption in the country. It is recorded by one of his students, who uploads the footage to YouTube and makes it an internet sensation.
Holoborodko’s students launched a crowdfunding campaign for his candidacy in Ukraine’s presidential race against his will, eventually leading him to political victory.