Singapore – A Cinematic Portrait by Raphaël Millet

Singapore: A Cinematic Portrait traces how the island has been seen, imagined, and reinvented on screen—from early colonial newsreels to contemporary cinema. Written by Raphaël Millet, the book spans 125 years of film history, shaped by colonialism, decolonisation, and independence, and viewed through local and foreign lenses. It brings multi-language Asian cinemas into a shared chronology, foregrounding films while addressing archival gaps through rare sources. Framed by the ideas of Nanyang and Nusantara, it reveals a plural, transnational cinema. Since the 1990s, currents of nostalgia and melancholy have reflected the tensions of rapid change, memory, and erasure—capturing a city continually lived, lost, and reimagined through film.