Hyacinth

Warsaw, 1985. In communist Poland, against the backdrop of the underhand ‘Operation Hyacinth’ run by the secret police, a young officer, ROBERT (25), and his more experienced colleague, investigate a murder case in the hermetic gay community. The authorities are too eager for Robert’s taste to blame the murder on the first suspect, so when he finds an informant, an unsuspecting, free-spirited student, AREK (23), Robert ventures out on his own to discover the truth. In the process Robert must face his personal demons, his strict father, a secret police official, and, in the end, the communist authorities.

  • Marcin Ciastoń
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Number of Pages:
    110
  • Country of Origin:
    Poland
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Script Wars
    Poland
    November 12, 2017
    Main Prize
  • Script Pro 2016
    Warsaw, Poland
    March 29, 2016
    Finalist
Writer Biography - Marcin Ciastoń

A graduate of Applied Linguistics at Warsaw University and Screenwriting at Warsaw Film School. In 2016 his first feature film screenplay “Bitter Violet” (“Gorzki fiolet”) was the finalist in the most prestigious screenwriting competition in Poland, Script Pro and was also selected for the Cross Channel Film Lab 2016. In 2017 Marcin again became the finalist of Script Pro with his second feature film screenplay “The Return” (“Powrót”). Meanwhile, he has developed a concept for a documentary TV series about comic books in communist Poland “Comic Book – The Superhero of the Polish People’s Republic” (“Komiks – Superbohater PRL”), aired on Canal+Discovery in 2017. Marcin has also been writing for television and is currently developing a feature film for family audiences, “Detective Bruno”, with a Polish production company.

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Writer Statement

I was inspired to write "Hyacinth" after researching Operation ‘Hyacinth’, which took place in communist Poland between 1985 and 1987. To this day the authorities claim it was a legitimate preventive action to curb crime in the hermetic gay community, though it is clear it might have been a way for Security Services to target inconvenient citizens and blackmail oppositionists. Men
suspected of homosexuality were brought to police stations all over Poland, they were questioned about their private lives, forced to reveal contact details of other gay men and sign a statement confirming their homosexuality. Each of them had a ‘homosexual file’ set up (often referred to as the ‘pink file’). It is reported that 11 000 such files were collected, but to this day it is uncertain
where they might be kept (post-communist legislation makes it impossible to extract them from the police archives for research purposes).

Robert’s investigation was also inspired by a real police investigation, reopened several years ago and still conducted as part of the so-called “Archive X”, a Polish police department dealing with crimes that haven’t been solved for decades.
Between 1982 and 1993, an unknown suspect targeted and murdered seven gay men, whom he probably met around a popular cruising spot – Fabryczna train station in the Polish city of Łodz. The suspect has never been detained or even identified, but in my screenplay I decided to reveal his identity to show the complex power structure and a system of interdependencies between representatives of various authorities.

While conducting research, I spoke to several people who witnessed Operation ‘Hyacinth’ or were themselves victims of the police/Secret Services’ reprisals. This way I was able to create true-to-life characters such as Maciek, a nurse and an openly gay activist, whose plot deals with a budding LGBT movement in communist Poland. Professor Kochanowski, on the other hand, is a tragic character reflecting the fates of many closeted homosexuals, whose lives were destroyed by the necessity to hide an important part of their identity and live a constant lie.