The Kashubian countryside keeps its secrets well. A child goes missing in what appears to be one of Poland’s most quietly beautiful corners – a region with its own language, its own folklore, its own stubborn sense of identity – and as prosecutor Leopold Bilski digs beneath the surface, the idyll begins to crack. What emerges is layers of guilt, local legend, and long-buried truth. Colors of Evil: Black (Kolory zla: Czern) is the follow-up to Colors of Evil: Red, one of the most-watched Polish movies on Netflix, and it promises to go darker still. Here’s everything we know, including the release date.
The Story So Far
If you haven’t seen Colors of Evil: Red (Kolory zla: Czerwien), the first film follows prosecutor Leopold Bilski as he investigates the murder of a young woman found on the beaches of Tricity – the tri-city conurbation of Gdansk, Gdynia, and Sopot that Poles know as a place of both beauty and complicated history. The case bears an eerie resemblance to one left unsolved fifteen years earlier. Working alongside the victim’s grief-stricken mother, Judge Helena Bogucka, Bilski unravels a disturbing web of nightclub corruption and institutional cover-up.
Released on Netflix in May 2024, it amassed over 30 million viewing hours globally and became one of the platform’s Top 10 Most Popular Polish Films and Series – proof, if any were needed, that Polish crime storytelling has found a genuinely international audience.
What is Colors of Evil: Black About?
Colours of Evil: Black is the second screen adaptation from Malgorzata Oliwia Sobczak‘s bestselling series. Sobczak has become something of a phenomenon in contemporary Polish fiction – her books have sold more than 750,000 copies, and the screen success of Red confirmed that her particular brand of psychologically dense, socially rooted crime writing translates powerfully beyond the page. The Netflix pipeline from Polish bestseller to global hit is still relatively new, and Colours of Evil sits at the heart of it.
This time, the story leaves the urban sprawl of Tricity behind for Kashubia – Kaszuby – a region in northern Poland that is far more than scenic backdrop. The Kashubians are a distinct Slavic group with their own recognized language, deep-rooted traditions, and a fierce sense of community that has survived centuries of pressure from larger powers. It is precisely that closedness, that loyalty to the group over the outside world, that makes it the perfect setting for what unfolds here.
When a child disappears, the pastoral surface shatters. What begins as a missing persons case spirals into an investigation through local trauma, unspoken guilt, and the kind of festering secrets that only survive in tight-knit communities where no one talks to strangers – and not everyone talks to each other.
At the center of the story once again is prosecutor Leopold Bilski, played by Jakub Gierszal. Transferred from a big city, he finds himself in a place where silence can be more unsettling than screams, and idyllic landscapes conceal a darkness that no one wants to speak of. The investigation quickly becomes less of a criminal case and leads him through psychological labyrinths, local legends, and uncomfortable truths that shatter the entire community’s sense of security. As Netflix puts it, this is a story about the high price one must pay when confronting the evil hidden in ordinary everyday life.
Where Red was a story of rage and impulse, Black is one of guilt, stillness, and reckoning – and in that sense, it feels very Polish indeed.
Cast and Production
- Adrian Panek returns to both direct and co-write the screenplay, a reassuring continuity for fans of the first film’s brooding, atmospheric tone.
- Jakub Gierszal reprises his role as prosecutor Leopold Bilski. One of Poland’s most sought-after leading men, Gierszal broke through with Jan Komasa’s Suicide Room (2011), earned a Shooting Stars Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and has since appeared in Agnieszka Holland’s Spoor, the cult horror-musical The Lure, and the German TV series Das Boot. He is a three-time Polish Film Award nominee.
- Marianna Zydek joins the cast in a new role. A graduate of the prestigious Lodz Film School, she earned early acclaim for her performance in The Butler (2018) while still a student, and is widely known to Polish audiences from the hit series Skazane.
- Andrzej Chyra is one of the heavyweights of Polish cinema – a two-time winner of the Best Actor award at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, for The Debt (1999) and The Collector (2005). A member of both the Polish and European Film Academies, he brings formidable stage and screen experience to the ensemble.
- Robert Gonera is another Polish Film Award winner, recognized for his role in Krzysztof Krauze’s The Debt (1999) – the same landmark film that launched Chyra. His television work includes the record-audience series M jak milosc.
- Beata Scibakówna is a veteran of Polish stage and screen, known for Radio Romans (1994), The Closed Circuit (2013), and Girls to Buy (2021). Also in the cast: Piotr Zurawski, Julian Swiezewski, and Adam Bobik. The film runs 109 minutes.
Colors of Evil: Black – All the Info
- Title: Colors of Evil: Black
- Original title: Kolory zla: Czern
- Format: Movie
- Runtime: 109 minutes
- Genre: Thriller, crime, drama
- Country of production: Poland
- Original language: Polish
- Director: Adrian Panek
- Main cast: Jakub Gierszal, Marianna Zydek, Andrzej Chyra, Robert Gonera, Beata Scibakówna
- Streaming platform: Netflix
- Streaming from: 10 June 2026
When Does Colors of Evil: Black Premiere on Netflix?
Colors of Evil: Black (Kolory zla: Czern) premieres on Netflix on 10 June 2026.
► Watch on Netflix
For the original Polish coverage of this article, head to Netflixmania.pl – Poland’s home for everything streaming.