| Summary: | It is a common strategy to analyse Southeast Asian films from a nationalistic perspective limited to a constructed understanding of the nation’s culture and social structure. I argue that social and human movements are critical to understanding Southeast Asian and Nusantara cinematic characters because they are inextricably linked to the region’s current conceptions of national space. The distinctive regional mode of human mobility known as merantau (to sojourn) makes it possible to conceptualise Nusantara as a migration space or, to use Arjun Appadurai’s terminology, an ‘ethnoscape’. The concepts of ‘sedar/sadar’, which roughly translates to ‘self-realisation’, are used to formulate indicators that will become apparent during the examination of Sri Mersing [Beauty from Mersing] (Salleh Ghani, 1961: Malaysia/Singapore) and Tabula Rasa (Adriyanto Dewo, 2014: Indonesia). These regional narratives of migration practise a sense of personal and societal belonging, and cultural identities are critical for contemporary Nusantara nation-states’ national societal development and nation-building processes. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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