The Forbidden Door

Gambir is a well known sculptor. His work sells, his wife arranges the exhibitions, and his life looks orderly. One day a note comes out of one of his pieces: a plea for help. Then another. The notes seem to come from a child. Gambir starts looking for the source and reaches a club in the city; there the members watch other people's homes on closed circuit cameras. Among the things he sees on the screens is a child. Joko Anwar writes and directs. Fachry Albar and Marsha Timothy are in the cast. It is an Indonesian production. The source is Sekar Ayu Asmara's novel. The structure is mystery; information is given by degrees and in the last section the whole narrative changes. The matter it works at is watching; the narrative puts both the club's members and the viewer in the same position. Anwar is among the names in the revival of genre cinema in Indonesia and this is one of his early works. The sections on the art world are critical; the narrative builds how the pieces are made as a secret. The violence is explicit and rises markedly in the last section. Who it is for: viewers who like Asian thrillers and mystery plots. Who it is not for: the violence is explicit, the narrative complicated, and the ending may be found forced.