To the Lake, the Russian TV show created by the Moscow-based company 1-2-3 Production, premiered on Netflix last week and within several days reached the 4th place, according to FlixPatrol, in the list of best watched series offered by the platform. It is also in top 10 in 56 countries, Roskino reports.

The Russian drama, which recounts the spread of a lethal respiratory virus, was mentioned by the American writer Stephen King in his Twitter account. The Master of Horror named To the Lake ‘good series’ with ‘cool cinematography’.

To the Lake was released as part of the premium Netflix Originals category and received many positive reviews from experts and critics who compared the Russian series produced by Valeriy Fedorovich and Evgeniy Nikishov to international classics in the post-apocalyptic genre like The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, and Train to Busan. The critics also note the masterfully created environment of tension and the gripping interpersonal drama between characters in the show.

“While working on the project we did not set ourselves the task of winning international markets, though we hoped for that. It was important for us to show the relationship between people who are under the threat of death and want to survive no matter what. Can they stay human? How far are they willing to go to save themselves and their loved ones? These questions move our story, and if it hooked the international audience, then, we were able to find something important that touched the hearts of millions of people”, says Valery Fedorovich, Managing Director of 1-2-3 Production.

“It’s an interesting fact that To the Lake was most viewed in Poland and Brazil during the first days, and these are two countries that are located too far away from each other. It shows that none of cultural or other differences matter when there is an interesting story that raises the issues on the global agenda”, as admitted by Evgeny Nikishov, Managing Director of 1-2-3 Production.

“A number of Russian series bought by international streaming platforms is growing. Apart from the To the Lake, we can mention Gold Diggers series that was sold to Amazon Prime Video Originals and Walter Presents (owned by British Channel 4). In addition, Good man series entered the short-list of the international festival “Serial Killer 2020”. Russia has become one of the top 10 world’s largest exporters of scripted formats. We attribute this success to the growing quality of our content and of course to the fact that every year there are more and more talented people in Russian film industry”, says Evgenia Markova, CEO of Roskino, the Russian organization in charge of promoting Russian audiovisual content worldwide.