‘Five Feet Apart,’ Film About Teens with CF and Young Love, Teams Up with Fashion Retailer rue21

“Five Feet Apart,” an upcoming romantic movie about two teens with cystic fibrosis (CF) who fall in love while undergoing treatment, now has a marketing partner — rue21.

The film is set to open at theaters around the U.S. on March 15, a press release states.

An apparel and accessories retailer, rue21 will donate an undisclosed amount to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF), a non-profit organization that supports CF research and patient care, under the arrangement. It also plans to host several events throughout February and March, including a co-branded giveaway on “Galantine’s Day,” the Feb. 13 pre-Valentine’s Day celebration started by a character on “Parks and Recreation,” an NBC sitcom.

Rue21 will also select at random a winner of its Red Carpet Screening Sweepstakes, which closed Feb. 9, and a guest to fly to Los Angeles for a first viewing of the film. Other events will include advanced screening ticket downloads and in-store handouts.

Starring Haley Lu Richardson, best known for the 2016 film, “The Edge of Seventeen,” and Cole Sprouse, a star of the TV series “Riverdale,” “Five Feet Apart” follows the life of Stella (Richardson), a high school senior and CF patient who is often being treated at a hospital, when she meets Will (Sprouse), a fellow patient.

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As the attraction between the two teenagers grows, they’re tempted to flout long-standing restrictions that, for health reasons, they need to maintain — including keeping a safe distance between them as Will struggles with an infection.

The film’s title alludes to the recommended distance CF patients maintain between themselves — and anyone with a cold or infection — to avoid germ cross-infection. According to the CFF, germs from coughing or sneezing can spread six feet (although the characters in the movie aimed to be one foot closer to each other).

CFF also recommends that CF patients to avoid activities that put them in close physical contact with fellow patients, including shaking hands, hugging or kissing; sharing objects such as pens, toys and computers; and sharing space in a car or other enclosed or poorly ventilated place.

Patients who live together should not share respiratory equipment, airway clearance devices, toothbrushes, eating utensils or drinking cups, or anything that has been in contact with mucous membranes, sputum, or phlegm.

The movie, which aims to increase CF awareness, has met with controversy. When its trailer was released, some within the CF community called the film irresponsible, because it shows the main characters touching each others’ medications, and walking together with no masks.

A trailer for the movie can be viewed using this link.

It is also set to open in the U.K., Italy, Hong Kong, Lebanon and the Philippines between March 21 and April 20, IMBD reports.

An adaptation of the screenplay for the movie was turned into a book with the same name by Rachael Lippincott.