Roh (film)

In the past, two children, Along and Angah, live in a ramshackle shed in the forest with their widowed mother, Mak. One day, they discover a dead deer hanging by its neck caught between branches high off the ground. On their way home, they see a young girl who starts following them. They take her in and call her Adik for little sister. Mak tells them a legend about a restless forest spirit that is cursed to endlessly hunt animals and children but victims can save themselves by knocking two rocks together and chanting a mantra. The next morning, the family wakes to see Adik eating raw birds. She tells them that they will all be dead by the next full moon before slitting her own throat.

The family leaves Adik’s body in a clearing in the forest. They return home to find an old lady who calls herself Tok looking at rocks that mysteriously appeared around the house the night before. Tok tells them the rocks are a bad omen and makes the children discard them. That night, Along encounters a specter that looks like Adik in the crawl space under their house. She develops a high fever and Mak goes to Tok for help. Tok conducts a ritual and instructs Angah to sacrifice two white pigeons but the boy secretly lets one of the birds go free.

A hunter shows up at the house looking for Adik but Mak turns him away. That night, Along sleepwalks and wakes to find herself at Adik’s gravesite where she again encounters the apparition. The next day, the hunter finds a terrified Along in the forest and returns her to Mak, who is suspicious that he had abducted the girl and harmed her. An agitated Along tells the hunter about Adik and then urges Mak to move out of the forest. The hunter, who is Adik’s father, finds her body and grieves. While her mother is out of the house, Along slams her head repeatedly into a sharp metal protrusion on the floor and dies.

Now truly fearful, Mak prepares to leave the forest with Angah but the boy wanders off in search of food. The hunter finds that Adik’s body has gone missing. He goes to Mak to warn her that she and her family are in danger from evil forces. She refuses to believe him and accuses him of causing Along’s death and Angah’s disappearance. After he leaves, Mak follows him with the intention of killing the hunter. In the forest, the hunter finds Angah and slits his throat before he himself is run through with a spear by Mak who has crept up behind him.

The hunter wakes to find Tok performing a ritual over Adik’s body which is buried in a shallow grave. She reveals that she is an iblis that exists by possessing humans to gain control of their souls. Tok is using Adik’s body to carry out her evil deeds. The iblis taunts the hunter that he has not managed to save Angah from his fate. The children’s spirits are seen roaming the forest. The film ends with Along burning down the family home with her mother, weakened by loss of blood from slit wrists, and dead brother inside it.

• Farah Ahmad as Mak (Mother)
• Mhia Farhana as Along (Daughter)
• Harith Haziq as Angah (Son)
• Namron as Pemburu (The Hunter)
• Junainah M. Lojong as Tok (Old Lady)
• Putri Qaseh as Adik (The Young Girl)

The film had its world premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival and Indonesia Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival in November 2019.

• List of submissions to the 93rd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
• List of Malaysian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

• Roh at IMDb
• Check cinema location and showtimes: Malaysia and Singapore