Trailer
Plot summary
Maya and Dini work tollbooth shifts in Jakarta. A man with a golok attacks Maya on a night shift, calls her Rahayu, and says he comes from Harjosari; police shoot him dead. Maya and Dini travel to remote Harjosari to find an inherited house and sell it, posing as student researchers. Maya grows up in the city with an aunt after her parents die. An old photograph shows a girl named Rahayu with her parents, Donowongso and Shinta, outside the house. The villagers are cold and suspicious.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Impetigore (2019)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Christine Hakim was cast in Impetigore in February 2019, and it was the first horror film in her 46-year career. Director Joko Anwar announced her alongside frequent collaborators Tara Basro, Marissa Anita, Asmara Abigail, Ario Bayu and Arswendi Nasution.
- At the 2020 Indonesian Film Festival, Impetigore took a record 17 nominations and became the biggest winner, the first time a horror film had done that in the history of the Citra Awards.
- Impetigore was expected to shoot in 29 days, but director Joko Anwar contracted dengue fever on the first day and was hospitalised for eight days. He later said he had almost died during the illness, and called the shoot "probably the most adventurous time" of his life.
- The crew spent three months hunting for a village that matched the script, and the one chosen, established in 1941 for workers on Dutch plantations, was so remote that they had to construct a path for vehicles and equipment to reach it.
- The crew built the village's first toilets as well as the house used as the main set, then left both behind after filming; the house set became a public library stocked with books the crew provided.
- A free screening planned at Jakarta's abandoned 1920s Bioskop Grand Senen cinema, part of an effort to revive historic Indonesian cinemas, was abandoned over permit issues; demand was so high that tickets sold out within five minutes of the announcement.
- Joko Anwar based Impetigore's concept on a story his older brother told him as a child, that the leather for Indonesian shadow puppets came from human skin, and combined it with a strong but intimidating maternal character inspired by his own mother.
