Streaming giant Netflix stated it will continue to stream the Polish film 365 Days amid calls for its withdrawal, including by British singer Duffy who said it glamorised “the brutal reality of sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape”.
Welsh singer-songwriter Aimee Duffy, known as Duffy, released an open letter on Thursday to Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, raising her concerns about the film that is based on a bestselling Polish book trilogy by Blanka Lipinska.
Described as an “erotic drama”, the film follows a woman, played by Polish actress Anna-Maria Sieklucka, who imprisoned by a Sicilian mafia boss, played by Italian actor Michele Morrone, who gives his hostage a year to fall in love with him.
“It grieves me that Netflix provides a platform for such ‘cinema’, that eroticises kidnapping and distorts sexual violence and trafficking as a ‘sexy’ movie,” wrote Duffy, who this year published her own account of being captured and raped.
“Tragically, victims of trafficking and kidnapping are unseen, and yet in 365 Days, their suffering is made into a ‘erotic drama’, as described by Netflix.”
Her letter, published by entertainment news website Deadline, followed a petition being set up on Change.org calling for the movie to be removed from Netflix for glorifying sex trafficking and facilitating sexual aggression towards women.
By late Friday the petition had about 6,000 signatures.
A spokesman for Netflix did not have a comment about the criticism surrounding 365 Days that debuted on the service last month to strong viewing numbers, but pointed out the film carried high ratings for violence, sex, nudity and violence.