Call Me Dad

Benni Setiawan's 2025 Indonesian film tells the story of a child left as security against a debt. Intan's mother is forced to go abroad as a migrant worker and leaves her daughter behind against what she owes. When Dedi, who comes to collect the debt, ends up having to take the child, his own life is upended; he is single, disorganised and entirely unsuited to it. From there the film enters a familiar shape: the bond built between a man who becomes a father unwillingly and an abandoned child. But migrant labour, the system of debt and the way children become collateral inside these arrangements stand in the background, and the film does not look away from them. The tone moves between comedy and drama. Who it's for: viewers who like family films and Indonesian cinema. Who it's not for: anyone wanting to avoid emotional effect; the film uses it plainly in its final section.