365 Dni Is Just Wrong

*If you can't read right now you can listen to me reading the post to you here*

Do you know what Netflix did again? Presented us with a very controversial romance movie that perpetuates abusive behaviors and markets them as romantic. It’s almost like romance can’t exist without any toxicity, which is a terrible message to put out. However, I do think that with this new movie they just outdid themselves. They went and made kidnapping romantic. Of course, I’m talking about the movie 365 Dni directed by Barbara Białowąs, where the premise of the movie is that a mafia lord falls in love with a girl and decides to kidnap her to convince her to fall in love with him. All told in a very Fifty Shades of Gray way and you get the next big hit. Kudos to them, they have a very popular movie on their streaming service, but should they really be promoting a movie like this?

In a very short answer, no, they shouldn’t. And if they do, it shouldn’t be considered a romantic drama. There’s nothing romantic about an abuser, who not only kidnaps a person but also gropes her while telling her he would never touch her without consent. No man, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t touch her without consent and then make it seem like you would never do that. Also, telling a kidnap victim that you won’t rape them has as much positive effect as sweeping a beach, so, no, that is most definitely not a redeeming quality.

And I know the argument that it is just a movie, we should just enjoy it and not take it too seriously. But how exactly am I supposed to enjoy a movie about a woman being kidnapped, groped without consent, and then suffering Stockholm syndrome? Because I honestly don’t know how to process that. Not only does it hit too close to what is happening in many places of the world with women disappearing and being found dead, but it’s also putting the idea that maybe those who kidnapped them really love them and just want a relationship with them. If you don’t see what’s wrong with that, honestly, I don’t know what to tell you. So, no, I don’t recommend this movie at all. And if someone truly loves you, their first instinct won’t be to kidnap you. Please, let’s not promote abusive relationships and dangerous obsessions and disguise them as romance. In the long run, it will do a lot more damage than you think. Thank you for reading!

With lots of love and some healthy amount of anger,

Mariana Victoria