Could Nightmares and Daydreams be the Indonesian Black Mirror? Netflix is going big on Southeast Asian content

Director Joko Anwar’s unusual sci-fi outing follows the regional success of drama Cigarette Girl and Jessica Alba thriller Trigger Warning, by Indonesian director Mouly Surya

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Nightmares & Daydreams episode “Old House” is a sci-fi riff on the concept of respect for the elderly in Indonesia, which may chime the the social commentary of smash series Black Mirror. Photo: courtesy of Netflix

Published: 5:45am, 28 Aug 2024

Indonesian film director Joko Anwar is fresh from the success of his new Netflix sci-fi series, Nightmares and Daydreams, a romp through local social issues set against a backdrop of brain-sucking monsters, possessed fiction writers, guardian angels and alien children.

The series is just one in a long line of Indonesian films and series dominating the streaming service this year, hailing a new era of Indonesian cinema.

“We have been quite overwhelmed by the response,” says Joko via phone from Bali, where he is taking a break between projects. “We understood we were going to do something different for an Indonesian audience, as sci-fi is not a staple for the Indonesian film industry.”

Director Joko Anwar on the set of his smash hit horror film Grave Torture, released in April 2024. Photo: Joko Anwar

Nightmares and Daydreams was released on Netflix on June 14, receiving four out of five stars from South China Morning Post’s James Marsh, and has been well received domestically, spending several weeks in the Indonesian top 10. And it is not the only domestic series to have done well for the streaming giant, nor is Joko the only Indonesian director to have partnered with the service in recent years. In 2023, Netflix Indonesia released the critically acclaimed series Cigarette Girl (Gadis Kretek) and, in June this year, Netflix United States released Trigger Warning, an action thriller starring Hollywood actress Jessica Alba and directed by Indonesian director Mouly Surya.

“It is the golden era for Indonesian films and series,” says Joko, who grew up in Amplas, a slum in the city of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra. From an early age, Joko, the son of a pedicab driver and a fabric seller, took in the criminal activity and unsavoury characters he saw around him. To escape the chaos, Joko, from the age of six, would plod some 45 minutes to a cheap cinema to soak up low-budget Indonesian horror flicks and kung fu films from Hong Kong. When all his money had gone, he would have to slake his thirst for new worlds standing on his tiptoes, watching the screen through a ventilation shaft at the side of the cinema.

After making Cigarette Girl, actor Ario Bayu told the Post that the quality of Indonesian films and series has grown in recent years, coupled with support from Netflix. Photo: courtesy of Netflix

Joko would eventually go on to work as a film critic for The Jakarta Post before turning his hand to directing, when he quickly became known for film noir, horror and superhero films.