<![CDATA[This study examines how Indonesian cultural identity is negotiated in the Arabic subtitles of the film Habibi & Ainun. The study is grounded in the view that audiovisual translation is not merely a linguistic transfer but also a cultural mediation process in which national values, social norms, religious expressions, forms of address, and culturally embedded meanings are selectively retained, adapted, or reformulated for target audiences. Using a qualitative descriptive design, this study analyzes Indonesian cultural expressions in the film dialogue and compares them with their Arabic subtitle renderings. The data were categorized based on cultural references, terms of address, religious expressions, politeness markers, and socio-historical elements related to Indonesian identity. The analysis focuses on the translation strategies used by the subtitler and the extent to which these strategies preserve or modify the cultural meanings of the source text. The findings indicate that Indonesian cultural identity is negotiated through a combination of retention, cultural adaptation, simplification, and semantic modulation. While some expressions are preserved to maintain Indonesian cultural specificity, others are adjusted to ensure readability, acceptability, and cultural resonance for Arabic-speaking audiences. The study highlights the role of subtitles as a site of intercultural negotiation, where the visibility of Indonesian identity is balanced with the communicative needs of the target audience. This study contributes to audiovisual translation studies by showing how Arabic subtitles can function as a medium for representing, reshaping, and transmitting Indonesian cultural identity in transnational film circulation.]]>
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