Tanah Sengketa takes place in Kampung Degong, around 50 kilometres from Jakarta, where university student Yuni arrives with the rather decent idea of setting up a free learning centre for local children, where she gets some help from Raka, a local young man, but things start getting very strange when Yuni begins experiencing supernatural disturbances connected to a piece of land the locals already consider haunted.
And there is more going on here than just a haunted patch of ground, too – the mystery eventually leads back to an old disappearance, a long-buried crime and people in the village who clearly know more than they are willing to say.
This Is Not Just a Haunted Land Story
Yuni isn’t arriving in Kampung Degong looking for ghosts, as she’s there to do something completely ordinary, setting up a free educational programme for children, which makes the supernatural trouble that follows her slightly more amusing in the horrible way horror films often are.
The villagers aren’t exactly thrilled about what she is doing either, and she is warned about the supposedly haunted open land by local figures including the village head and Bu Inem, but Yuni carries on anyway.
Then come the supernatural warnings, strange writing and sightings of Sulastri, a mysterious woman whose disappearance turns out to be connected to the history of the land – an old certificate and an antique pendant eventually become important pieces of the puzzle, leading Yuni and Raka towards a much darker explanation for what happened there years earlier.
So the horror mystery is tied to something very human as well, with the supernatural events eventually exposing an old crime rather than simply existing because somebody built a house in the wrong bloody place.
Trailer
Dara The Virgin Leads the Film
The cast is headed by Dara Rizki Ruhiana, better known as Dara The Virgin, who plays Yuni, with Awan Reyhan as Raka and Marlene Sheryl as Sulastri – the supporting cast includes Boy Crosby as the village head, Dewi Sartika as Bu Inem and Mita The Virgin as Lina, along with Abe Idrus, Dede Satria, Dwi Wokee, Esti Haryani, Harsya Subandrio and Mira Parsono.
There is a particularly nice little bit of trivia here because Dara and Mita The Virgin are both in the film, meaning the musical duo returned to acting together after spending years concentrating primarily on music – Mita also takes on a different look for the role of Lina, appearing in a hijab, something that was specifically mentioned around the film’s release.
Two Directors, One Very Strange Piece of Land
Tanah Sengketa was directed by Muda Saleh and Sadly Fafa Rachman, with the pair also credited as writers, while Muda Saleh additionally produced the film for Ocean Production -the film runs for approximately 92 minutes and was released in Indonesian cinemas on 25 June 2026.
The Indonesian Film Center lists it as mystery, thriller and drama, while Indonesia’s Film Censorship Institute classifies it as horror and thriller/mystery, which probably gives you a better idea of the balance here than simply sticking a big “HORROR” label on it.
There is also Taraz Bistara handling the music, with Marno Jawir as cinematographer and Nanditho Djohar editing, according to the Indonesian Film Censorship Institute’s production information.
From Horror to Crime Mystery
One of the more interesting things about Tanah Sengketa is that the supernatural mystery eventually starts pointing towards criminal wrongdoing involving local power, rather than everything being explained by an ancient curse.
The official synopsis describes the land as a witness to a dark criminal act involving village authorities, with the disappearance of Sulastri becoming an important part of the investigation – that gives the film another layer because the ghost story becomes a way of bringing an old crime back into the open.
It is basically the supernatural refusing to let everybody forget what happened.
Which is a pretty good reason for a ghost to be pissed off.
Check out some more Indonesian horror movies.
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