This isn't the first film this year from Netflix that's about a historical incident in a foreign country, spotlighting the homophobia in that country.
Dance of the 41 (2021) was the film from Mexico about how the police illegally and unfairly went after gay men. Director Piotr Domalewski has crafted a film that's similar in that regard. It's also about the police illegally and unfairly going after LGBTQ people, specifically gay men. In fact, from 1985 to 1987, the Polish government was keeping dossiers on gay men and their associates. These dossiers were termed the "pink files" and over 11,000 were collected. It was similar to what the American government was doing with COINTELPRO from the 50's to the 70's, as explored in the recent film
MLK/FBI (2021). Because Poland was part of the Eastern Bloc of the Soviet Union, it's most likely that anti-gay sentiments and tactics were influenced from Russian and Soviet control, as the KGB probably had something even worse than COINTELPRO.
What sets this film apart from Dance of the 41 is that it's a thriller. It's in effect a murder mystery. As such, it felt more reminiscent of William Friedkin's Cruising (1980). Except, Domalewski doesn't revel in the violence. He's not as lurid as Friedkin's film comes across. It's the same basic premise. A police officer starts investigating the murder of a gay man, which leads to the murders of other gay men. That police officer goes undercover in a sense to try to get more information and root out who the killer might be. He gets pulled into the underground gay scene and starts discovering new things about himself.
Tomasz Zietek is clearly an up-and-coming actor in Poland. He was featured in
Corpus Christi (2020), which was the official submission from Poland to the 92nd Academy Awards where it was nominated for Best International Feature. This year, Zietek is the star of
Leave No Traces (2021), which has no distribution in the United States yet but it is the official submission from Poland to the 94th Academy Awards. Who knows if it'll get the nomination or even make the shortlist, but Zietek is a standout here. He's not quite like Al Pacino in
Cruising. He's certainly suave and smooth, as he's at first an ambitious police officer.
Zietek plays Robert Mrozowski, a member of the Citizens' Militia, which is what the police force in Poland was called from 1944 to 1990. It is in fact 1985, the year that Poland really started cracking down on gay men, especially in the wake of the HIV/AIDS epidemic when gay men were seen as a threat. Robert is a sergeant who has been pursuing petty crimes like theft. He wants to take on bigger cases. His father is a colonel in the police force, so he has a lot to live up to and a lot to prove. At the start of this film, Robert is given a murder case. The murder is of a gay man who was stabbed to death. The assumption is that another gay person probably did it, so Robert goes after and interrogates other gay men in order to find a lead.
Hubert Milkowski co-stars as Arek, a college student who escapes a round up of gay men at a public toilet. He's a curly-haired cutie whom Robert follows. Robert pretends to be a gay man and befriends Arek who takes a liking to him. The two start hanging out together. There's a desolate spot at a shipyard where they meet. Arek also starts inviting Robert to other things like parties featuring LGBTQ people. At first, Robert is trying to get information from Arek, but it doesn't take long before he's letting loose and having fun with Arek.
Police procedural narratives are mainly reserved for episodic television. It's difficult for one to pop as just a singular film, but this one accomplishes that goal. It weaves together the police procedural narrative in a compelling way. It also becomes a powerful romance between Robert and Arek.
Rated TV-MA for language, sex, nudity and smoking.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 52 mins.
Available on Netflix.
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