Visibility despite repression: LGBTQ+ films and series in the wider region

Author: Jovana Ivetić

In societies where legal norms, political discourse, and social attitudes are marked by stigma and discrimination, the depiction of queer life and identity is perceived as provocation and risk. Therefore, visual works that boldly portray LGBTQ+ themes, without reduction to comic stereotypes, not only broaden the range of narratives, but also open up space for public debate about rights and dignity. In this context, films and series featuring LGBTQ+ characters are pioneers in raising questions about identity, social norms, and justice.

Poland and Unbreakable Art

LGBTQ+ people in Poland face strong opposition from the government, church and society, and even part of the country has formally declared so-called “LGBT free zones”. In such social segregation, any artistic creation that deals with queer themes signifies extraordinary courage.

The 2021 drama “Hiacynt” (trans. by Zumbul) directed by Piotr Domalewski is based on a secret mass operation by the Polish communist police, carried out in the period 1985-1987. The purpose of the operation was to create a national database of all Polish homosexuals and people who had contact with them. The film, therefore, has a historical political context of repression against homosexuals during the communist era, but to some extent the same stigma against LGBTQ+ people persists today.

In the same year, the biographical film “Wszystkie nasze strachy” (trans. All Our Fears) was released, directed by Łukasz Gutt and Łukasz Rondud. The story tells the story of a gay activist and visual artist, Daniel Rycharski. Driven by an unexpected tragedy, Daniel, who is also a deeply religious man, tries to make the local community mourn together. This work, which has won six awards, is even braver than the previous one because it represents contemporary events, strongly expressing the suffering that affects the LGBTQ+ community in today's Poland, as well as the ongoing struggle.

Polish artists can also boast of the LGBTQ+ Film Festival, which is one of the most important events on the cultural map of Central and Eastern Europe. Resisting censorship and repression for seventeen years, the festival presents a wide range of queer films, all with the aim of building a world of freedom and equality. It is shown hybridly, both in cultural centers and with the option of viewing online, so that it is accessible to everyone.

Turkey - Maneuvers Against Borders

In Turkey, the public atmosphere for the queer community is negative because there are no laws protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. All issues of LGBTQ+ rights are labeled as controversial and taboo. Art itself is censored because the criminal code prohibits “obscene” books, films, music, etc. This does not mean complete censorship of LGBTQ+ content because, for example, the series “Will & Grace” was shown on national television, but it is still present, especially in relation to domestic production. One example is the web series “Aşk 101” from 2020, which was worked on by Ahmet Katıksız, Deniz Yorulmazer, Umut Aral and Gönenç Uyanık. It is a romantic comedy about a group of teenagers. After it was discovered that it contained a gay character, the government and society pressured the script to be changed, which resulted in it being modified for broadcast in Turkey. Despite the censorship, the series has been praised for the way it deals with themes of friendship, love and self-discovery, and among the LGBTQ+ community and allies for its attempts to include queer representation.

Three years later, the directorial duo Ahmet Katıksız and Gökçen Usta managed to insert queer representation into television content, in the soap opera “Aile” (transl. Family). The series, among other things, very subtly addressed queer identity and lesbian love. Namely, one of the characters, Leyla, talks about her old love, where neither partner nor partner is mentioned, but “the person she loved”, whose name was Deniz, which in Turkey is used for both sexes. Leyla also develops a new relationship, and although we never see them express tenderness (apart from always sitting close to each other), it is noticeably loving. The theme is also acceptance, or rather rejection by the family, so we have touching scenes such as the one in which Leyla asks her mother if she thinks “she is abnormal”; and in the last episode the beginning of acceptance when her mother asks her “how are she and her friend”. In addition to the above, the series often has visual symbolism, such as rainbow-colored glasses. Although critics and some media outlets called this work LGBTQ+ propaganda, since the creators themselves censored it to the extent that it suited them, they avoided official censorship and won - the series with lesbian love was broadcast on the national frequency.

As for the film industry, the multi-award-winning drama film “Zenne dancer” (transl. aut. Zen dancer) from 2011, directed by Caner Apler and Mehmet Binay, is the most significant Turkish work with LGBTQ+ themes. We follow an unusual trio: Daniel, a German photojournalist in Istanbul without much knowledge of Turkish tradition, Can, an extravagant and proud belly dancer with a lot of love and support from his family, and Ahmet, born into an Eastern and conservative family whose pursuit of honesty and freedom results in a tragic end. The entire film, in fact, was inspired by the case of young Ahmet Yıldız, who was killed "out of honor" by his family after they found out he was homosexual.

Hungary’s Fight Against Censorship

In a country where the legal framework for LGBTQ+ rights is among the most restrictive in the EU, and where the authorities have introduced amendments that prohibit the promotion of homosexuality to persons under the age of 18, any distribution of a piece with LGBTQ+ content is a challenge. That’s why Hungarian queer films are like a cultural opposition to the dominant political narratives.

The 2021 documentary “Colors of Toby” (transl. aut. Toby’s colors), directed by Alex Bakony, follows a 17-year-old transgender teenager struggling for acceptance in northeastern Hungary.

Two years later, another documentary, “Narrow path to happiness” (transl. aut. Uski put do srece), directed by Kate Oláh, stood out, focusing on a young Roma couple with a dream to make a film based on their lives, at a time when Hungary is becoming increasingly authoritarian and hostile towards the LGBTQ+ community.

Serbia and the Erasure of Compromise

Although discrimination against LGBTQ+ people is legally prohibited in Serbia in areas such as the media, the law is not enforced in practice; which is not surprising when you know that LGBTQ+ themes have long been present in cinema and on the small screen, but mostly in a caricatured form, serving to provoke laughter or ridicule. Positive examples of credible and dignified depictions of queer identity and love are the film “Dyši duboko” (Breathe Deeply), and the series “Jutro će promeniti sve” (Morning Will Change Everything) and “Jedini izlaz” (The Only Way Out).

“Dyši duboko” by director Dragan Marinković was released back in 2004, and follows the girls Saša and Lana, who meet and fall in love in the midst of historical chaos and their own family breakdowns. Fourteen years later, “Jutro će promeniti sve” was written by Goran Stanković, Vladimir Tagić and Milica Tomović, and it talked about young people who have passed the age of thirty and are still searching for “their place under the sun”. It was the first television series in Serbia to show the love of two girls. The series “Jedini izlaz” by director Darko Nikolić, from 2021, also portrayed lesbian love. What these three works have in common is that they all show the love of two women. It is difficult to find the same examples, with an absolute absence of caricature and/or comedy, while portraying the love of two men, probably due to the Balkan understanding of masculinity.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Breaking Through the Rainbow

In recent years, there have been efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina to increase the visibility of queer people through activism and the media, but this domain is still within the framework of festivals and independent projects, which would mean that there is still an absence of LGBTQ+ thematization in Bosnian and Herzegovinian cinema and television content. Positive examples relate to documentary content.

The 2020 documentary “The Parade”, directed by Alen Drljević, follows Mirza, one of the participants in the Pride Parade. Mirza talks about his expectations, but also fears regarding the first Bosnian and Herzegovinian Pride Parade; and then we follow the walk itself, which is also a protest for equality.

You can watch the film at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-dg-jzCll8

Five years later, as part of the Kvirhana in Tuzla, the documentary film “For Your/Your Good” premiered, produced by Kataliza and directed by Admir Adilović. The film deals with “conversion practices,” the harmful and unethical attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation.

You can watch it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qO7TrVxBbU

Bosnia and Herzegovina is also witnessing attempts to develop a queer film and festival space, such as the Merlinka Film Festival, but such efforts often face pressure, which further confirms the limitations of the social space. The key challenge remains the systemic absence of LGBTQ+ themes from institutional culture, especially from public media and dominant film and television production. Until that changes, festivals and independent platforms remain key spaces of resistance and visibility, and authors can continue the fight through networking, regional co-productions, and strategic positioning of their works at domestic and international festivals that already have a developed sensitivity to queer themes. At the same time, it is important to consistently insist on archiving and continuity, where queer works do not appear as isolated exceptions, but as a permanent segment of the festival program. Although such spaces cannot replace systemic support, they can build an audience and legitimacy in the long term, which over time opens up space for broader institutional shifts.

In Poland, Turkey, Hungary, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, queer film remains a form of courageous communication, which not only reflects the existence of LGBTQ+ people, but also actively challenges the audience to question established socially imposed attitudes and stigmas.

This article was published with the support of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The content of the article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Tuzla Open Centre or the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or the Irish Government.