Yas, Netflix! The streaming service keep leading the way and bringing it for queer representation on our screens.
Enter ‘Dance of the 41’, Netflix’s new movie which infuses drama, sexiness and tragedy (such is the gay way), resulting in some absolutely brilliant viewing.
Alfonso Herrera (who we’ve been obsessed with since he caught our attention in the epically phenomenal Sense 8) stars in the Mexican drama, which is based around a secretly gay congressman who marries the Mexican president’s daughter, but is then found engaging with a young man at a private party, resulting in scandal.
The title of the film is a reference to 20th-century Mexico and the police raid of a gay gathering at private home on Calle de la Paz, where 41 (although the initial reports suggested 42) men, half of whom were dressed as women, were found, arrested and punished.
After the infamous raid, the number 41 became almost culturally-prohibited in Mexican mainstream society, so much so that many people and corporations avoiding use of the number altogether. The incident, referred to as ‘the invention of homosexuality in Mexico’ by writer Carlos Monsiváis, was the ‘Dance of Forty One,’ as it came to be known.
Check out this handy little Netflix short-codes hack to get you straight to all the LGBTQ+ content and watch the trailer for Dance of the 41 below: