A couple living in desperate poverty adopts an orphan for venal reasons, but will love or greed prevail?

The second of Joko Anwar’s Nightmares and Daydreams doesn’t waste a second getting down to business. It opens as a group of attendants carefully wash the dead body of a man reputed to have committed suicide seven days after adopting a small boy, Syafin (Faqih Alaydrus). Rumour has it that he is the devil’s child, capable of bestowing immediate wealth on anyone assuming the mantle of parent, but on the seventh day the ultimate price will be paid.

For odd job man Iyos and his wife Ipah, earning pennies picking trash from the nearest landfill site, offering to adopt the boy is the only way out of their desperate shanty town existence. Iyos (portrayed by a sweaty, energetic Yogo Pratama) even has a plan for avoiding the consequences of their Faustian gamble.

While the plotting remains as frustratingly schematic as Old House, the series opener, The Orphan is stylistically more sure footed, favouring a fable like quality. You can almost imagine this tale being spun over woodfires in centuries gone by. Indeed, I had a look to see if had its roots in Indonesian folk tradition but I wasn’t able to come up with anything conclusive. Regardless, the timeless quality makes for a compelling watch, at the same time fusing with a very specific, politically sharp sense of its modern Jakarta location.

Verdict: Once again, the ending is a tad too predictable, but I’m loving this window into an underexplored modern culture, and I’m keen to see what nightmares or daydreams come next. 7/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com