Smothered
It was a terrible accident with a silver lining, Alif driving far too fast for the conditions, the road wet and visibility poor, a collision in which he could have died or suffered serious injury but instead after recovery he is released from hospital with only some mild after-effects, his doctor warning that he might suffer from fuzzy memories such as difficulty with faces, names and places.
Taken home by his wife Nadine with son Emir in the back seat, they both notice changes, a man who has forgotten the unhappiness in his marriage, who is kinder and more forgiving, a better man than he was before, but who had also forgotten that his estranged mother was due to visit, the first time they have seen each other in eighteen years, unable to recall her face, the woman welcomed to their home a stranger to Alif and his family.
The debut feature of directors Rafki Hidayat and Kevin Rahardjo from a script by Joko Anwar, Aline Djayasukmana and Rafki Hidayat, Smothered (Legenda Kelam Malin Kundang, The Dark Legend of Malin Kundang, in reference to an Indonesian folktale of an ungrateful man who is cursed by his abandoned mother and turned into stone) is largely set in Jakarta, the elegant home of Alif (Rio Dewanto) far from the provinces where he was born.
Risen from poverty to become a successful artist preparing the latest exhibition of his works, Nadine (Faradina Mufti) a college lecturer and Emir (Jordan Omar) exuberant and intelligent, the arrival of Aminah (Vonny Anggraini) delights them all but awakens deeper memories in Alif, a cache of old sketches in a locked drawer telling another story, his mother’s cooking a delight but her memories wrong in important details even as she gets some parts right.
A film of two distinct halves, Smothered opens as a domestic drama of unexpected harmony as Alif becomes the man he always could have been, disturbed when his solicitor Iqbal (Gambit Saifullah) tells him they were not friends, that he had none, a toxic introvert offered a blank slate to write a new future but haunted by the sketches of his mother pregnant and the graves of her dead babies.
The inevitable twist of the knife more cruel than anticipated, it is a rug pulled out from under Alif, his repressed memories rising and setting him on a quest through the city slums to a truth he may not wish to learn, finding out who the person he invited into his home was and also who he really is, lies upon lies and truths which could destroy his new happiness but which he cannot turn away from, a film of an imperfect man confronting his flaws which drifts farther from the wished-for happy ending the deeper it goes.
Smothered will be streaming on Shudder from Friday 29th May
