Transnational Ethical Screens: Empathetic Networks in Malayalam Short Films from the Gulf

ABSTRACT:This paper explores the emergence of ethical and empathetic modes of transnationality in the specific context of Malayali diasporic media in the Middle Eastern Gulf. Through a combined analysis of short films, literature, advertisements, bureaucratic policies, and ethnographic vignettes, this paper looks at the figure of the migrant laborer as both a social force and a media object around which ideas of justice and empathy cohere. I argue that such film and media constitute a mediated vision of ethical transna tionalism—one that bypasses the red tape of the state and instead emphasizes an affective recognition of the other.