Smothered (Legenda Kelam Malin Kundang)

A driving accident left Alif (Rio Dewanto) in a coma and once recovered with memory issues. He hardly remembers his wife Nadine (Faradina Mufti) or son Emir (Jordan Omar). However Alif does register his studio where he works as a micro-artist. Complicating matters more his mother is due to visit whom he hasn’t seen since he left home at 18 and barely remembers her.

Mother Aminah (Vonny Anggraini) arrives and its not long before she’s embedded within the family especially with Emir. Alif however isn’t so sure about her or her identity even though she seems to know a lot about him, as a mother would be expected to. Nadine isn’t that happy either, but her priority is Alif who is a new man after the accident. By all accounts he was a nasty piece of work before the accident and disliked by almost everyone. Their relationship had been falling apart for years, and Nadine was preparing to leave him.

Smothered was directed by Kevin Rahardjo and Rafki Hidayat, the latter a co-writer with Joko Anwar and Aline Djayasukmana. With three writers and two directors this could have been fragmented. That’s not the case as the film and story develop steadily as the information drips in.

The imposter premise isn’t that original though not done to death. Here the writers have twisted things around quite a lot. This makes it more interesting and adds a slight air of mystery to the story. That however is shunted in the last third of the film when it starts to pick up pace as Alif uncovers what is going on and about himself.

Smothered will be on Shudder from 29 May 2026.