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Singer Duffy Criticizes Netflix For Glamourizing Rape In Hit Film “365 Days”

By Michael Bamidele

03 July 2020   |   12:31 pm

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Welsh singer-songwriter Duffy has called out Netflix for showing Polish feature film "365 Days" which she says “glamorizes the brutal reality of sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape”. "365 Days" tells the story of a woman kidnapped by the head of a Sicilian Mafia family and given a year to fall in love with her captor.…

Duffy | Image: Smooth Radio

Welsh singer-songwriter Duffy has called out Netflix for showing Polish feature film “365 Days” which she says “glamorizes the brutal reality of sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape”.

“365 Days” tells the story of a woman kidnapped by the head of a Sicilian Mafia family and given a year to fall in love with her captor.

Duffy, in an emotive letter to addressed to the CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings, said: “It grieves me that Netflix provides a platform for such ‘cinema’, that eroticises kidnapping and distorts sexual violence and trafficking as a ‘sexy’ movie. I just can’t imagine how Netflix could overlook how careless, insensitive, and dangerous this is.”

The Grammy-winning singer, 35, who earlier this year disclosed her own experience of being raped, drugged, and kidnapped said that Netflix treats “the serious crime of kidnapping and sex trafficking’ as ‘erotic entertainment.”

“I encourage the millions who have enjoyed the movie to reflect on the reality of kidnapping and trafficking, of force and sexual exploitation, and of an experience that is the polar opposite of the glossy fantasy depicted in ‘365 Days'”

The singer urges the Netflix chief to commit the company’s resources to produce content about the global problem of kidnapping and sex trafficking, which the United Nations calls a ‘grave violation of human rights.’

The singer closes her letter to Hastings with the statement, ‘”When know better, let us do better”.

In February, Duffy revealed in an Instagram post that she has been drugged, kidnapped, held captive and raped over a period of four weeks a number of years ago, saying the harrowing experience had made her retreat from the limelight.

365 Days, adapted from a novel by Polish writer Blanka Lipińska, has become a Top 10 hit on Netflix. It has been universally panned by critics, earning a 0% score on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.