‘365 dni’ on Netflix: The ‘Tiger King’ of 2020 Horniness

2020 was the year COVID-19 crippled our global culture, Taylor Swift dropped two original albums, and a lascivious Polish film called 365 dni was arguably the most popular movie on Netflix of the summer. 365 dni, or 365 Days, pitched itself as Poland’s answer to the BDSM-celebrating hit Fifty Shades of Grey. Truly, though, it was an unhinged celebration of eroticism complete with sex scenes that were essentially porn. So why did 365 dni capture the hearts, minds, and libidos of so many Americans in 2020? Quite simply, 365 dni was our Tiger King of horniness in 2020 and that’s all there is to it.

Based on the best-selling Polish novel by Blanka Lipinski, 365 dni tells the story of Laura Biel (Anna-Maria Sieklucka), a beautiful, bored corporate sales rep who finds herself stuck on a boring Italian vacation with her boring boyfriend Martin (Mateusz Lasowski). Things get decidedly less boring when Laura is kidnapped by Don Massimo Torricelli (Michele Morrone), a dangerous — but handsome, I guess? — crime boss. He’s not boring, you see. But he has been obsessively stalking Laura for five years, which is bad. Worse? He decides to kidnap her and hold her hostage for the titular 365 days with the idea that by the end of the year, Laura will fall in love with him.

365 dni very clearly ups the ante on Fifty Shades of Grey‘s laundry list of problematic sins by depicting Stockholm Syndrome as romantic. Or at the very least, erotic. The film is less about two people learning to love each other than it is about two anger-fueled hotties playing mind games with each other that culminate in disaster. Sure, there are a heck of a lot of orgasms along the way, but 365 dni depicts sex and violence as twin spirits binding people together and tearing them apart.

Massimo and Laura’s relationship isn’t rooted in kindness or communication. It’s based in blood. Laura’s resolve not to melt into the arms of her hard-bodied captor only breaks after he murders a man who tried to rape her to prove his love. This forces an argument that leads to her falling off a boat and into the roiling sea. Massimo then risks his life to save hers, and she gives him an incredibly convincing blow job as thanks. Then the two make love (or to quote The Crown‘s Prince Charles, “Whatever love is”) for a few stunning minutes all over his yacht. 365 dni‘s “boat scene” remains one of the wildest scenes on Netflix months later thanks to its ruthless horniness.

But really that’s all 365 dni is: bonkers, ruthless, guileless horniness. It’s aggressively problematic on purpose, playing into the darker fantasies that folks have that defy all rules of common sense or civility. The story driving 365 dni? It’s upsetting. The romance at the film’s heart? Shallow. The sex scenes? Shockingly shameless. 365 dni is more of a spectacle than a romance, and that’s the point. It is the Tiger King of eroticism on Netflix.

Much like how we all flocked to the unbridled insanity of Tiger King in the early, mind-numbing days of quarantine, 365 dni was there for us when the itch to just touch another human got to be too much. Why were people happily watching such faff? To fap, naturally. (That’s my critical take at least.) 2020 is a year that challenged us in so many ways, it should come as no surprise that many of us were drawn to the least-challenging content imaginable. We wanted shows and films that felt as insane as the mind-melting reality closing in on us. We wanted a release from all our tensions, to disappear from our stress for a while. And 365 dni was there for a lot of people. At least according to Netflix’s own Top 10 lists.

The good news? We as a culture seem to have gotten over our 365 dni hump (pun totally intended). As we mentally adjusted to the turmoil at hand, we turned to the more intellectual delights of The Queen’s Gambit and soul-affirming humor of Ted Lasso. The wildest sex scenes we’re gasping over now can be found on HBO’s Industry (and Netflix’s Bridgerton is on the way with sumptuously erotic portrayals of romantic love, not Stockholm Syndrome).

365 dni was the biggest Netflix film of summer 2020. It was a moment in our culture that happened, even if it feels like a fever dream today. But like Tiger King, it was an obsession that kept us going when times were grim and we felt, like Laura, trapped against our will. At least 365 dni‘s version of house arrest had some arrestingly horny visuals to distract us…

Where to stream 365 dni