Streaming giant Netflix has just released the first trailer for Operation Hyacinth, a new thriller based on a true story of police hunting down a city’s gay population.
Set in Poland in the 1980s, Operation Hyacinth follows a police investigator named Robert on the trail of a serial killer targeting gay men. Rather than target only the killer, Robert’s superiors order him to begin hunting down and identifying all gay men in Warsaw for prosecution and imprisonment. Much as in the United States, Eastern Europe saw a huge spike in homophobia during the period due to the AIDS crisis. Robert begins to bond with a gay police informant named Arek, and soon begins to realize their relationship could put them both in extreme danger…for more than just one reason.
Related: Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski slams Poland’s “absurd” LGBTQ crackdown
Operation Hyacinth premiered this summer at Poland’s New Horizons Film Festival to much acclaim. The film arrives on Netflix on October 13.
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Have a look at the trailer, and try not to feel a chill.
PerhapsYesNoMaybe
And who is the intended audience for this depressing film?
Kangol2
I get the possible historical interest and value in terms of depicting homophobia in Poland during the Communist era, which parallels the homophobia in the country’s contemporary, right-wing authoritarian government, but really, another film about people killing off gay men? And this one involves both a serial killer offing gay men AND cops brutalizing and killing gay men? Come on, Netflix! Meanwhile, millions of stories of LGBTQ life go untold and unexplored in film and series formats.
dougie
I suspect that the film is intended for audiences who value freedom and equal rights – a cautionary tale, if you will, for what could happen if we’re not diligent about protecting our freedoms. For example, transgender women in the U.S. are being murdered by the dozens and very few of their murder cases are solved. And, there are efforts underway now to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse their marriage equality decision made just a few years ago. Depressing? Yes! But films like this, depressing and scary as they are, serve to keep up on our toes to make sure that our freedoms aren’t eroded further.
Kangol2
Yes, except that the focus of this film appears to be on the “straight” protagonist and not the gay characters, and it’s set during the Communist era in Poland, which was horrible, but Poland’s current democratic government is right-wing and strongly anti-LGBTQ, in contrast to the rest of the EU (except for Hungary, which is also authoritarian, far-right and anti-LGBTQ), so in a sense, this film doesn’t counter the fact that in Poland gay people are suffering whether under a Marxist system or a conservative democratic one, which sends a less than hopeful message.
Seth
Conservative murder porn.
Hard pass.