‘The Invisible Guest’ Remake Director Danial Rifki on Suharto-Era Fear and Why His New Thriller Is About ‘How to Fight Back’ — SkimNews
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- Danial Rifki released his Indonesian remake of the Spanish thriller 'The Invisible Guest,' set for HBO Max on August 7 after exclusivity delays, reworking the original for a local political and cultural context.
- Danial Rifki premiered two original films at Jakarta World Cinema: 'Tua Tua Keladi,' a romantic comedy about older villagers rediscovering love after a chemical leak, and 'Sandal Jepit No. 10,' a thriller on police abuse and digital resistance.
- Danial Rifki stated that 'Sandal Jepit No. 10' reflects Indonesia’s lingering political trauma from the Suharto-era New Order, drawing parallels to modern online censorship and fear of state power.
- Danial Rifki emphasized that his films center on human moral conflict across genres, with his next project, 'Before Thirty,' set for January 2027 as a survival drama critiquing societal pressure to succeed by age 30.
- Reza Rahadian, Mawar de Jongh, and Arifin Putra star in the remake of 'The Invisible Guest,' produced by Falcon Pictures and completed in 2023 before its delayed release.
Why it matters: Rifki’s trilogy at Jakarta World Cinema amplifies marginalized voices—older adults, the politically silenced, and young strugglers—using genre film to challenge social taboos and power structures in Indonesia, where digital repression and generational pressure remain acute. His focus on moral conflict gives mainstream cinema a tool to confront systemic fear.
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