Reframing auteurism: Bront Palarae’s interstitial authorship and the critical transnationalism of nusantara cinema

This study proposes Interstitial Authorship as a critical framework to revise conventional auteur theory, focusing on the cinematic contributions of Malaysian actor, director, and producer Bront Palarae. Palarae’s career is marked by a consistent thematic imprint centered on multicultural hybridity, urban anxieties, and moral complexity that structurally transcends his primary credited roles. Utilizing a Critical Transnational Auteur Analysis methodology, the paper synthesizes Hamid Naficy's Accented Cinema (2001), postcolonial critique (Shohat & Stam, 2014), and Maharam’s Nusantara Cinema (2020). Key films, including One Two Jaga (2018) and Stone Turtle (2022), serve as primary case studies. The analysis demonstrates that Palarae's consistent vision and strategic use of the producer role establish an interstitial mode of production (Naficy, 2002). By championing marginalized narratives and resisting ethnonationalist frameworks, his filmography exemplifies critical transnationalism within the emerging Southeast Asian Auteur Wave. The study concludes by formalizing Interstitial Authorship as a vital critical category for understanding collaborative, hybrid cultural production in the Global South.