Indonesian filmmaker Danial Rifki’s remake of the Spanish thriller “The Invisible Guest” finally premiered on the big screen at the Jakarta World Cinema festival after a delayed release caused by exclusivity clauses with HBO.
The film, produced by Falcon Pictures, reworks Oriol Paulo’s 2016 thriller of the same name, adapting the story for a local audience while retaining the original’s suspenseful structure.
Rifki completed the remake in 2023, but its distribution was held up when HBO’s exclusivity agreements prevented an earlier theatrical rollout. The festival screening marks the first public exhibition of the film in Indonesia.
During the festival, Rifki explained that the remake is intended to reflect the atmosphere of fear that prevailed during Indonesia’s Suharto era and to convey a message about “how to fight back.” The film is one of three of his works featured at the Jakarta World Cinema event.
The screening underscores a growing interest in revisiting historical anxieties through contemporary cinema, as Indonesia’s film industry increasingly explores stories that resonate with the nation’s recent past while reaching new audiences at international festivals.
<small>Source: Variety — read the original story there.</small>
