Dead Time

Joko Anwar's 2007 Indonesian film follows a journalist and a policeman running separate investigations. A run of murders converges on a single point: a treasure that several parties are after. The form draws on the pattern of film noir. Jumps in time, an unreliable narrator and shadowed spaces are used, and it is counted among the few Indonesian films working in that mode. Anwar would later become known for horror; in this early work he tries genre mixture more freely. The narrative holds its explanations to the end and withholds some of them entirely. Who it's for: those who like Indonesian genre cinema and attempts at noir. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a clean resolution; the film leaves part of its mystery unclosed.