Netflix Is Doubling Down On One Of The Most Controversial Movies On Its Platform By Making Two Sequels

Last June, the most popular movie on Netflix, 365 Dni (Polish for 365 Days), was also highly controversial. The film (which was not produced by Netflix and was, in fact, a Polish movie distributed by Next Film) captured the same audience as the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy, which already had enough issues with consent to be questionable. Yet those films looked tame compared to a story about a Sicilian Mafia boss who kidnapped a woman and gave her a year to essentially develop Stockholm Syndrome and fall in love with him. Well, plenty of viewers were here for a horny boat scene, and there’s more of that type of thing coming soon.

The film was based upon Blanka Lipińska’s book trilogy, which means that there’s plenty more source material out there to follow up with. People watched the heck out of the first movie, despite Rotten Tomatoes scores of 0% (from critics) and 29% (from audiences) and Netflix is gonna do the thing by making two more sequels. It’s an eyebrow-raising move, given that (as Deadline recalls), the film drew 95,000 signatures on a petition for Netflix to remove the film from streaming, and that effort was joined by Welsh singer Duffy, who publicly spoke out about her own kidnapping ordeal, in which she was held captive and raped. The marketing on the sequels thus far, however, emphasizes a steamy romance and, now, a rivalry.

According to the film’s logline , “Laura and Massimo are back and hotter than ever. But the reunited couple’s new beginning is complicated by Massimo’s family ties and a mysterious man who enters Laura’s life to win her heart and trust, at any cost.” Netflix quotes Łukasz Kluskiewicz, their Content Acquisition Manager in Poland as saying, “365 Days was one of our most popular films for our members in 2020. We’re working closely with Blanka Lipinska, the author of the 365 Days trilogy of books and writer of the film, to continue Laura and Massimo’s story on screen. Their journey together is full of many twists and turns as our characters continue to grow and learn more about themselves.”