Indonesian Auteur Edwin Takes a Cue from Jordan Peele for Anti-Capitalist Horror-Comedy ‘Sleep No More’
In the fluorescent glare of a rundown Indonesian wig factory, vats of human hair simmer in huge cauldrons, stirred by hunched laborers as rows of mannequin heads watch blankly from the dark. Indonesian auteur Edwin has spent much of his career examining the quiet absurdities of modern life with a cool, deadpan detachment. But with Sleep No More, premiering in Berlin’s Special Midnight section this week, the director makes a headlong plunge into horror — infusing the genre with black comedy and a pointed critique of humanity’s slavish worship of capitalism. The film marks Edwin’s return to Berlin, where Postcards From the Zoo screened in competition in 2012 and later earned him the Edward Yang New Talent Award at the Asian Film Awards. For the new feature, he takes his cue from Jordan Peele, using the scary movie not just as spectacle but as a vehicle for uncomfortable social satire. “I never worked with this genre before,” Edwin says. “So we thought, let’s have fun with it — but not by doing a horror based on …
