Photocopier () is a 2021 Indonesian crime mystery drama film, co-written and directed by Wregas Bhanuteja in his feature-length directorial debut.
The film had its world premiere at the 26th Busan International Film Festival in October 2021, in the New Currents competition. The film won a total of twelve Citra Awards out of seventeen nominations, including the awards for Best Picture and Best Director. It won the most Citra Awards by a single film.
Plot
Suryani (Sur) is a college student enrolled in a computer studies course, who is also part of her campus's theater group, Mata Hari. Sur designed a website for the group, which has helped to promote their image. When Mata Hari’s performance of “Medusa” is accepted for a festival in Kyoto, Sur joins a celebratory party with the other group members at leader Rama Soemarno's house. An older girl, Farah, advises Sur not to go to the party, and Sur’s strict father also warns her beforehand not to drink alcohol, but Sur ignores their advice.
The next day, Sur wakes up late and hungover, with few memories of the night before. At a meeting with her campus board to decide the question of her scholarship, she learns that selfies of herself whilst drunk have been posted online, although Sur cannot remember doing this. The board revokes her scholarship and, in addition, her angry father kicks her out of the family home, after telling her she did not come home until 3.00 am, carried by a man who woke the whole street up in the process.
Sur questions the other members of Mata Hari, trying to find out what happened to her the night before. One member, Anggun, admits to ordering a taxi for her at around 10 pm. Remembering that Tariq had given her a whiskey shot, Sur is convinced that she was drugged and decides to investigate.
Sur moves in with her friend Amin, who runs a photocopy business, and on the side illegally sells theses to students. When members of Mata Hari visit Amin’s business to print out copies of coursework, etc, from their phones, Sur, hiding upstairs, hacks into those phones from her laptop and downloads the data.
With Anggun, Sur goes to the taxi company, to find out why her journey home from the party took an inordinately long time. The driver, Burhan, explains that he had to stop to change a flat tyre.
Sur confronts the theatre group with photos and videos from the party, which suggest that Tariq drugged her. He protests his innocence and the whole group go to Rama’s house, to view his extensive video coverage of the party. The videos exonerate Tariq, and do not show anyone tampering with Sur’s phone while she was wasted, so the group assume she was responsible for posting the selfies of herself while drunk.
Sur noticed from Rama’s videos that she did not have more than four drinks at the party. With Amin, she carries out a “drinking experiment” to test whether four alcoholic drinks really is enough to make her pass out, but finds she can drink much more; this reinforces her conviction that she was drugged.
Sur analyses samples of Rama's installation art, which is supposedly photos of the Milky Way, but she notices similarities between the patterns and birthmarks on her back. Tampering with Rama’s Milky Way photos, she discovers they are actually photos of blemishes on human skin, photoshopped to look like a galaxy. She asks Amin to persuade Rama to visit the photocopy shop, so she can download files from his phone. But during Rama’s visit she overhears a conversation between him and Amin, which hint at some secret business between them. She challenges Amin, who confesses that he downloaded private pictures from students’ phones for Rama, who needed the photos “for inspiration”. Amin says he only did it to pay for his sister’s medical bills, but Sur leaves in disgust.
Sur presents her evidence to the Ethics Board at the campus, but both the evidence, and her identity, are leaked and go viral. Rama’s lawyer demands that Sur make a public apology on video and, urged by the college board and her parents - none of whom are prepared to take her side - she reluctantly agrees. However her mother Yati learns the truth after recognising pictures of her daughter’s birthmarks, and Sur tells her everything. Yati arranges for Sur to take shelter at the home of an acquaintance, Siti, who has medical knowledge. Siti tells Sur it is too late now to prove that she was drugged.