The Siege at Thorn High (Indonesian: Pengepungan Di Bukit Duri) is a 2025 Indonesian dystopian action thriller film written and directed by Joko Anwar, co-produced by Amazon MGM Studios and starring Morgan Oey, it follows Edwin, a substitute teacher assigned to teach at Duri Senior High School, an institution notorious for its troubled students.
The film was released by Amazon MGM Studios on 17 April 2025. It received the most nominations at the 2025 Indonesian Film Festival, alongside The Shadow Strays, with twelve each.
Contents
Plot
The film opens with the May 1998 racial riots in Jakarta, during which ethnic Chinese communities are violently targeted amid economic turmoil. In 2009, high school student Silvi is abducted and raped during renewed unrest while traveling home with her younger brother Edwin, who is beaten unconscious. When he awakens, he finds their house burning. Silvi later raises Edwin alone before her death, entrusting him with finding the child conceived from the assault.
By 2027, Indonesia remains unstable, with anti-Chinese discrimination still widespread. Edwin, now a substitute teacher, accepts a position at the notoriously unruly Bukit Duri Senior High School while quietly searching for his nephew. He faces hostility from students, particularly Jefri, who leads a group known for targeting ethnic Chinese classmates. After Edwin intervenes to stop an attack on a student named Kristo, tensions escalate, and Jefri later assaults him. The school expels Jefri. During Independence Day preparations, large-scale riots erupt again across Jakarta. Exploiting the chaos, Jefri and his gang storm the school armed with weapons. Edwin, staff member Diana, Kristo, and another student, Rangga, barricade themselves inside the auditorium. When Rangga’s father arrives to retrieve his son, he is captured and brutally murdered, and Rangga is killed while attempting to escape.
