A YOUNG girl enters an abandoned hotel on a rainy night and begins searching for something. But before she can find what she is looking for, she is knocked unconscious by a mysterious figure.
The interesting opening scene immediately has me hooked. Slowly, we learn that the girl’s name is Anna Hussein (Khayrani Kemal) and that she has gone missing after the attack.
Inspector Dewi (Sharifah Amani) is sent to Anna’s hometown to help solve her disappearance.
But Anna’s wealthy father Hussein (Rosyam Nor) does not have confidence in Dewi’s ability to locate his missing daughter.
Adding to the tension is local cop Inspector Rizal (Mustaqim Mohamed Zaki), who is openly hostile towards Dewi and resents her presence.
Still, Dewi manages to find Anna ... dead in a sewer. Now, she is determined to find Anna’s killer.
Director Nadiah has created a wonderful, moody and sombre atmosphere with strong visuals to match the dark story she is telling.
Almost everyone in the cast has given a top-notch performance, especially Amani and Rosyam who played out well the intense animosity between their characters.
Unfortunately, Nadiah takes her own sweet time to reach the conclusion of this story, and the poor pacing really took a toll on my patience.
She has crammed in far too many issues – male chauvinism, polygamy, bad debts, broken marriages and murder – into one story, and leaving some important questions unanswered – like what was Anna looking for in the abandoned hotel?
Worse is the convoluted storyline, which is full of plot holes. Some scenes also do not make sense. For example, why is a policewoman staying in a hotel that is used for prostitution?
If Nadiah had put more emphasis on the story rather than the visuals, her debut feature film might have fared better than just passable in my opinion.
