Operation Hyacinth Review
The Polish film “Operation Hyacinth” takes place between 1985 and 1987, when the action of the secret police was applied. The cops were tasked with tracking down known or perceived homovenereals, including them in a database and often forcing them to sign confessions or extract others. Extortion and roughness were common tools used by officers and superiors. During the operation, more than 11,000 people were registered in this database.
Knowing this information will clarify one or two points of the plot, but you can blindly enter this Netflix version and you will not get lost. Director Piotr Domalewski and screenwriter Marcin Ciastoń use the operation as a backdrop for a police matter involving a serial finisher of gay men and the policeman who goes undercover to solve the matter. Along the way, our protagonist begins to wonder if he identifies too much with his temporary role as a gay man. It sounds a bit like a “cruise”, but in reality it approaches the detective films of the 80s and the paranoid thrillers of the 70s. The Director of Photography Piotr Sobociński Jr. bathes the characters and locations in a distinctly neo-black aesthetic, while the story spirals in directions that surprise the viewer, whom he can trust.
Officer Robert (Tomasz Ziętek) is a rising star in his neighborhood, still somewhat green, but from a respected family of police officers, including his father Edward (Marek Kalita). Robert is the fiance of a fellow officer, Halinka (Adrianna Chlebicka), who has to prove the supervision of the lockers. He and his partners are part of the Hyacinth operation, which searches public restrooms and clubs to bring gay men together. It is obvious that no one involved in these maneuvers has much — or no — respect for homovenereals, whom they call “hyacinths”, in the same way that “thinking” has become the flower of insult used here in America. These imprisoned men are then ruthlessly interrogated in claustrophobic scenes in which they beg not to be exposed.
When a execute spree occurs with the same type of fatal injuries, the police believe they have a serial finisher at large. The highest demand that the matter be resolved as soon as possible. If a doubtful brought by Robert makes a confession before finishing himself in a cell, the police will close the matter. Robert is online for a promotion that his father is more than eager to help convey, but something does not suit him. The resolution is too neat. Also, there is no evidence, incriminating or otherwise. “We had a confession,” an officer says, but given the severity of the blows to the doubtful, this cannot be reliable.
With a little leeway, Robert is allowed to infiltrate to satisfy his own suspicions. Posing as a guy on a quest, he meets Arek (Hubert Milkowski), a confident and courageous young man who complains about hyacinth strikes and has a supernatural talent to avoid capture. Considering that he knew some of the victims, Robert decides to use him as an informant. Arek turns out to be a good choice for information, but it’s a cheeky kind that sees her new boyfriend rather repressed. “You can’t be afraid of everything,” he said to Robert, especially not of freedom.”To relax him, or maybe just to test the waters of availability, Arek hugs an unprepared Robert. It’s hardly a tingling sensation, but it has a bigger impact.
“Operation Hyacinth” treats Robert’s latent homovenereal desires in a familiar way, but the film also uses them to add an extra layer of tension to the already tense police proceedings. There is a frightening scene with a suspicious and angry Edward, who doubtfuls that his son may not be straight. The peril is closer at home and at work than on the street, especially when the evidence in the execute matter casts a wider, more sinister and conspiracy-theoretic net. There are powerful men with powerful secrets, and as Robert gets closer to the truth, he becomes more and more browbeat and passion. Zietek does a very good job with both action scenes and difficult moments of emotional and venereal confusion, and Milkowski provides a liberated and easy-going counterpoint to play against..
If this had been done in the 1940s, it would be in the same vein as “detour” or “the Maltese Falcon.”It has a set of desperate nihilism, which is characteristic of the best black. Ciastoń’s screenplay, which won the Best Screenplay Award at the Polish Film Festival, weaves a fascinating and complex canvas of anger, tension and romance, while accusing the Hyacinth system and its participants. He has a lot to say about the hard costs of oppression by social homophobia. As a result, the resolution of the film is far from being lined up or closed, but it still manages to fulfill.
