The ghost in Joko Anwar‘s “Ghost in the Cell” doesn’t haunt – it holds accountable.
Indonesian filmmaker Anwar used his Berlinale Forum entry “Ghost in the Cell” to channel societal anxieties about systemic corruption and environmental destruction through supernatural horror, creating a prison-set thriller that treats its genre elements as political instruments rather than escapist entertainment.
The film centers on inmates at an Indonesian correctional facility whose fragile power structures fracture when a new prisoner arrives with a vengeful supernatural entity that hunts those with the darkest aura. As the body count rises, survival depends on collective action among the incarcerated population.
For Anwar, the prison setting provided a concentrated laboratory for exploring societal hierarchies. “A prison is like a miniature of the society and it mirrors hierarchy, power dynamics in it, also fear, violence, morality all compressed in one confined space with politeness stripped out,” the director explains. “Inside a prison, the consequences are immediate. However, while everyone is trapped in the same system, not everyone faces equal consequences including punishment.”
The filmmaker deliberately wove environmental destruction and judicial inequality into the narrative fabric rather than treating them as background decoration. “The environmental and political realities have always been the origin of horror, not only as a sideshow,” Anwar says. “I let the ghost carry the truth that the system made by humans refuses to articulate.”
Central to the film’s approach is treating the supernatural presence as an active agent rather than pure metaphor. “The ghost was never meant to represent an idea. It has intent, intelligence, and limits. It chooses its victims,” Anwar notes. “So the ghost isn’t a metaphor and becomes an actual character, shaped by trauma and injustice. It doesn’t deliver moral comfort. It delivers consequences.”
Managing the large ensemble within the volatile prison environment required extensive preparation. Anwar developed detailed backstories for every character, including day players, and conducted group rehearsals that mirrored the film’s factional dynamics. “I let every actor have other character’s sheet in their group and left other characters from different groups as a mystery so they can feel the danger, suspicion, coming from other groups of inmates,” he explains.
The tonal balancing act proved crucial, mixing violence, satire and uncomfortable humor. “Humor in the film doesn’t release tension, it sharpens it,” Anwar says. “Laughter should come with discomfort. If the audience laughs and then immediately questions why they did, the tone is working.”
Landing in Forum, known for championing formally ambitious and politically challenging cinema, aligned with Anwar’s intentions. “Forum is a section where films are allowed to be uncomfortable and unresolved,” he observes, hoping international audiences recognize the systems portrayed as uncomfortably familiar rather than exotic.
The director wants viewers to leave questioning institutional complicity. “I hope they ask themselves who the system is actually designed to protect,” he says. “The film isn’t asking whether corruption or destruction exists, we all know it does. It’s asking why we’re so comfortable letting them become normal.“
The production represents another collaboration between Anwar and producer Tia Hasibuan through their Jakarta-based Come and See Pictures, alongside Rapi Films, South Korea’s Barunson E&A – the studio behind Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite” – and Legacy Pictures. The ensemble cast features Abimana Aryasatya, Lukman Sardi, Bront Palarae, Aming, Rio Dewanto, Morgan Oey and Tora Sudiro.
Barunson E&A is handling worldwide sales on the project as part of a two-year agreement with Come and See Pictures.
English (US) ·