Duffy criticises ‘irresponsible’ Netflix over decision to host abduction film

Duffy has criticised Netflix’s decision to host a film which she claims glamorises “the brutal reality of sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape”.

The Welsh singer, 36, claimed earlier this year that she had been drugged at a restaurant on her birthday before being held captive in her own home and taken to a foreign country.

In a letter to the streaming giant’s chief executive, Reed Hastings, Duffy said the company’s decision to feature the film 365 Days was “irresponsible”.

Directed by Barbara Bialowas and Tomasz Mandes, the Polish drama follows the imprisonment of a young Warsaw woman by a Sicilian man, and has been likened to 50 Shades Of Grey.

On Thursday, Duffy wrote: “365 Days glamorises the brutal reality of sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape.

“This should not be anyone’s idea of entertainment, nor should it be described as such, or be commercialised in this manner.

“I write these words (ones I cannot believe I am writing in 2020, with so much hope and progress gained in recent years), as an estimated 25 million people are currently trafficked around the world, not to mention the untold amounts of people uncounted.”

Duffy, whose full name is Aimee Anne Duffy, added: “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.

“It has even prompted some young women, recently, to jovially ask Michele Morrone, the lead actor in the film, to kidnap them.”

Duffy also urged Netflix and film-makers to produce and broadcast content that portrays “the truth of the harsh and desperate reality” of kidnap and rape.

Addressing the film’s fans, she said: “And because 365 Days has proved enormously popular, I also address this letter to viewers directly.

“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 letter comes months after Duffy returned to the public eye following years away.

In April she posted a lengthy statement online, claiming she was “raped, drugged and held captive”, and had spent years recovering from the ordeal.

She wrote: “Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it.

“But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine.

“You wonder why I did not choose to use my voice to express my pain? I did not want to show the world the sadness in my eyes.

“I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke.”

Duffy has since released new material.

Apart from a contribution to the Legend film soundtrack in 2015, she had not released any new music since her second studio album, Endlessly, in 2010.

Netflix has been contacted for a response.