Synopsis
When ambitious young correctional officer Aiman is transferred to the country's highest-security prison, he catches the attention of the seasoned chief executioner Rahim. Aiman's desire to become the hangman's apprentice is not only professional but born of an unspeakable urge to reconnect with a past that haunts him.
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Cast
- Fir RahmanAiman
- Wan Hanafi SuRahim
- Mastura AhmadSuhaila
- Boon Pin KohJames
- Nickson ChengJoseph
- Crispian ChanRandy
- Gerald ChewHock
- Ong Chao HongDeath Row Officer
- Sean TobinJohn
Recommendations
- 90
The Hollywood Reporter
One of Apprentice’s strongest selling points is how, in a very compact yet pleasingly dense way, it takes viewers into both the world of the executioners and the executed criminals’ family members who remain behind, two often almost ignored categories in films touching on capital punishment. - 90
Screen Daily
Tightly focused and ambitious in its multiple themes, the tale touches on how the death penalty radiates out to affect the living. - 88
Slant Magazine
Writer-director Boo Junfeng casually reinvigorates the prison drama, boiling its elements down to their primal essence. - 80
Village Voice
In a finale rife with twisted feelings of resentment, fury, and self-loathing, the film transforms into a grave meditation on the corrosive shadow cast by the decisions, and crimes, of yesterday. - 80
The New York Times
At first Apprentice seems to be a basic revenge film in which Aiman stalks the man who killed his father. But it becomes psychologically more complex. - 60
Variety
The movie feels a little too sparse and literal in places. - 42
The Film Stage
While not without the occasional jolt of a sudden execution, the film feels so wholly tell and not show. Its left-wing politics about toxic masculinity bleeding into the justice system are so much a given that it’s just a dead-weight experience to watch.
