Miracle in Cell No. 7

Dodo has an intellectual disability and lives with his small daughter Kartika. He is accused of causing the death of a wealthy family's child, arrested, and sentenced to death. The men in his cell devise a plan to get his daughter inside. Hanung Bramantyo directs. Vino G. Bastian plays Dodo. The film is the Indonesian adaptation of the Korean Miracle in Cell No. 7 from 2013. After the Korean film's enormous success at home it was remade in many countries, including Turkey, India and the Philippines. This is one link in that chain. The Indonesian version keeps most of the plot and adds local elements; the prison order, religion and family structure are built with local equivalents. It did extraordinary business and entered the upper reaches of Indonesia's all time list, becoming one of the clearest demonstrations of how well remakes work in that market. The method is undisguised: the emotional effect is calculated and the final section is written to make you cry. The film does not pretend otherwise. Who it is for: viewers who like family drama and popular cinema pitched at a high emotional register. Who it is not for: if you have seen the Korean original there is nothing new, the presentation of disability is stereotyped, and the legal process is not realistic.