Apprentice

Aiman is a newly transferred prison officer with a vocational-education background, assigned to watch rehabilitating prisoners and later mentored by Rahim. His sense of duty clashes with personal history, including his father’s death sentence, shaping a cautious, principled approach to the brutal realities of the gallows. He experiences a first-hand confrontation with execution, which unsettles him and fuels internal conflict about his role.

Rahim is the Chief Executioner and a veteran warder who mentors Aiman while reconciling his own disillusionment with murder and his professional obligation. He blends experience with stern ethics, and his conversation with Aiman exposes tensions between compassion and the mechanics of state killing. He recognizes the potential consequences of Aiman's family history on his role.

Suhaila is Aiman's older sister whose disapproval of his work strains their relationship. Her engagement to John and her move to Australia reflect family tensions and cultural distance. She remains a loving sister, but her choices highlight the personal costs of the prison world on family life.

John is Suhaila's Australian expatriate fiancé whose involvement underscores cross-cultural tensions and the fractures within the family as secrets and loyalties are tested. He represents a different world outside the prison, complicating Suhaila’s decisions.

Joseph is a fellow officer who steps down as Rahim’s assistant after admitting he can't pull the lever during an execution. His departure seeds doubt about the moral cost of the work and foreshadows Aiman's eventual path.

Randy is the death-row inmate who receives Rahim’s consolation before the execution. The process leaves him and the observers with a stark reminder of the human cost of capital punishment.

Assistant Superintendent James Tan assigns Aiman to prepare for an upcoming execution, signaling shifts in the prison’s power dynamics and the precariousness of Aiman’s career within the system.

Aiman’s father, who was sentenced to death in 1985 for murder and whose past haunts Aiman, complicating the young officer’s sense of fairness and professional eligibility.

Aiman’s grandfather, who raised him and Suhaila after their father’s imprisonment. He embodies the family legacy and provides context for the siblings’ divergent paths.