''Abracadabra'' is a 2019 Indonesian

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction f ...

, directed and written by Faozan Rizal. The film stars

Reza Rahadian Reza Rahadian Matulessy (born 5 March 1987) is an Indonesian actor who rose to prominence following his role in Perempuan Berkalung Sorban or ''(Woman with a Turban''). Born in Bogor, he took up acting while in senior high school and made his f ...

as Lukman, a magician who tries to bring back a little boy who vanishes from his magic box. The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Jogja-

NETPAC The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) is a worldwide organization of 29 member countries. It was created as the result of a conference on Asian cinema organized by Cinemaya, the Asian Film Quarterly, in New Delhi in 1990 at the inst ...

Asian Film Festival. It was theatrically released on 9 January 2020.

Premise

Lukman, a magician, tries to make a little boy vanishing from his magic box as his

swan song The swan song ( grc, κύκνειον ᾆσμα; la, carmen cygni) is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful so ...

. Unexpectedly, he cannot make the boy come back to the stage. ''Abracadabra'' follows Lukman's journey to bring back the vanishing boy.

Cast

Production

Director Faozan Rizal conceived the idea of ''Abracadabra'' in 2017. To Rizal, magic world and cinema served as worlds where "he could live in his own imagination". The filming took place in

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...

Release

''Abracadabra'' had its world premiere as the opening film of 2019 Jogja-

Asian Film Festival. It was theatrically released on 9 January 2020. During its run at the theatres, the film garnered 12,523 moviegoers and grossed Rp 500 million ($35,038).

Accolades

References

{{reflist 2019 films Films about magic and magicians 2019 black comedy films 2019 fantasy films Indonesian comedy films