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

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.