A hard working fisherman is saving up to search for his missing mother when he is witness to a life changing visitation.

When the opening slate of Encounter (the fourth of Joko Anwar’s Nightmares and Daydreams) told me we were being transported back to a small coastal community outside Jakarta in 1985, I knew I’d have to pause my telly for a second. I like to think I’m reasonably well-travelled, not to mention a politics geek but I can’t pretend to be an expert on Indonesian history so I hit Google to learn that in 1985 the country was in the midst of Suharto’s brutal military dictatorship.

Normally any show that needs a history primer would be a no-no for me, but Nightmares and Daydreams has drawn me in precisely because of this kind of localised detail, making it a refreshing watch for any curious western horror geek, whose knowledge, like mine, stops at Japan and Korea.

Encounter is set in a tiny fishing village, built of little more than flimsy huts. The residents are poor, but hard working, in the knowledge that just to scrape a living they are fishing their waters dry. Humblest of them all is Wahyu (Lukman Sardi making a bid for the saddest TV performance of 2024) whose mother has been missing since he was a child and his only objective in life is to save enough from his meagre wage to travel to Saudi Arabia – her last known location – in an attempt to find her, or at least solve the mystery of her disappearance. We feel for him, but his wife, Dijah (Ersa Mayori) has had enough of her life being put on hold for Wahyu’s quest.

Enter government forces determined to brutally evict the villagers to make way for luxury developments. The village needs someone to lead the resistance, and when Wahyu claims to have seen an angel appearing to him on the beach, he is hailed as a reluctant prophet.

As with the previous episodes, in the final act, fascinating social commentary careers around a narrative chicane into the bizarrely paranormal, and perhaps the two don’t quite hang together. Having said that, hopefully when the loose ends of each story are tied together in the finale, the series will achieve a sense of unity which isn’t quite working yet.

Verdict: At its midpoint, Nightmares and Daydreams, despite being a little uneven, is by far my favourite watch of the summer. I start each episode excited as to what aspect of Indonesian life I’m going to be introduced to in a show oozing with humanity and social conscience. I’m also loving being introduced to so many excellent actors unknown to western audiences. This is where a global streaming platform like Netflix comes into its own. Let’s just hope that this international exposure doesn’t smooth the rough edges of Joko Anwar’s thoughtfulness and obvious pride in his country, history and culture. 8/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com