This special issue brings together critical essays on Gema Dari Menara (1968), Brunei's first feature film, and demonstrates the significance of this film for any scholars of Bruneian history, culture, media and identity.

This collection includes discussions of national identity construction and popular culture, a comparative study of language use via signs in the film to the present-day, an evaluation of the construction of religious prohibitions, negotiations and juxtapositions of the sacred and the secular, and the use of modern technologies in the film, amongst others.

While this collection in no way constitutes comprehensive scholarship of the film, it is hoped that it will open up conversations for further study and research on a film whose significance continues to be relevant today.