Glitter (Polish TV series)

Glitter (Brokat) is a Polish drama television series. It was released on Netflix on 14 December 2022.

Premise
The series follows the lives of three sex workers in Sopot in 1976, during the Gierek era of Communist Poland.

Cast

 * Magdalena Popławska as Helena Michałowska
 * Wiktoria Filus as Pola
 * Matylda Giegżno as Marysia
 * Bartłomiej Kotschedoff as Bogdan
 * Szymon Piotr Warszawski as Władek
 * Łukasz Simlat as Adam
 * Stanisław Linowski as Staszek
 * Jędrzej Hycnar as Jurek
 * Folco Marchi as Tomas Barre

Production
Showrunner Aleksandra Chmielewska was inspired to create the series after reading a Polityka article by Anna Dobrowolska about sex work in the Polish People's Republic. Chmielewska stated, "In the first half of the Gierek decade, Poland opened up to the West. Foreigners began to come to us and pay in dollars... Women earned as much for one [sexual encounter] with a client as others earned for a month of working in an office. Sex work was one of the few, if not the only, ways to achieve financial independence. Sex workers were among the country's elite."

The series was filmed in the Tri-City area, including Sopot, Orłowo in Gdynia, and Hala Olivia and Biskupia Górka in Gdańsk.

Reception
Joel Keller of Decider wrote, "Glitter makes a real effort to concentrate on its main characters instead of leaning on period clichés, and does so without judgement or a sense of kitsch. Because of that, the characters have room to breathe and develop, something you don’t always see on shows set in the wild '70s."

Andrzej Kulasek of Gazeta Wyborcza referred to Glitter as "a Polish series that surprises with a well-written script, a coherent story, great acting and fantastic editing." Małgorzata Major of Wirtualne Media commended Glitter's cinematography, production design, and costume design, calling the series "beautifully filmed" and "the most stylish production I have seen this year." She cited, however, the series' banality and clichés, writing, "The series does worse when it tries to tell the complex stories of its characters. The closer we get to the finale, the more we run aground."