Piotr Domalewski's film Hiacynt has just skyrocketed to become one of my favorite movies of the year. Operation Hyacinth is dangerous, and sexy, and smart, and really nerve-wracking. Hiacynt is a genre movie – a crime film in which the detective uncovers ever more dangerous information. In this case we are in 1980s Poland, and our detective is attempting to figure out who is murdering gay men, although the police seem to think there's nothing to investigate.
One of the things I really liked about Hiacynt is its refusal to treat homosexuality sentimentally. There was a range of queer people in the movie, and the film's focus wasn't on a couple who just wanted to get married or something like that. Instead Hiacynt's best comparison is Basil Dearden's Victim (1961), in which we watch the practical ways that the lives of queer people are destroyed by the (so-called) justice system. Victim is an important point of reference here because it, too, focuses on crimes against gay people and the work of a protagonist who cares about this when the government does not,.
I loved this movie. It was fascinating to get a bit of a window into what gay culture must have been like in this police state. Tomasz Ziętek is excellent as the film's lead, but the film itself is also just so well made. The cinematography, editing, score... all are top notch. It's very, very good.
And you can watch it now on Netflix.
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