Batak Culture Tourism and Landscape Representation in Film Ngeri Ngeri Sedap

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-589-8_53How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Film representation; Batak culture; Tourism imagery; Semiotic analysis; Lake Toba

Abstract

General Background: Film serves as a powerful medium for representing cultural identity and regional landscapes, shaping audience perceptions of tourism destinations. Specific Background: The film Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap portrays North Sumatra through visual depictions of natural scenery and Batak cultural practices, presenting the region as a distinctive cultural and tourism space. Knowledge Gap: However, limited studies examine how cinematic representation constructs regional identity and tourism imagery through semiotic analysis. Aims: This study aims to analyze how Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap represents Batak culture, tourism, and landscape, and how these representations shape viewers’ interpretations of North Sumatra. Results: Using a qualitative approach based on Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory, the findings reveal that the visual prominence of Lake Toba functions as a central attraction, while scenes depicting local traditions and daily cultural practices reinforce a distinct regional identity. Additionally, the emotional narrative embedded in the film contributes to a sense of attachment to place, guiding audience interpretation of the region. Novelty: This study applies Barthes’ semiotic framework to examine the intersection of tourism representation, cultural identity, and cinematic narrative in an Indonesian film context. Implications: The findings provide insights into how film can represent regional identity and tourism imagery, offering a reference for cultural communication and destination representation in visual media.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Marshel Pradiska Trisnanda
AU  - Andi Fikri
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/18
TI  - Batak Culture Tourism and Landscape Representation in Film Ngeri Ngeri Sedap
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Communication and Digital Multimedia 2025 (ICCDM 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 662
EP  - 669
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-589-8_53
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-589-8_53
ID  - Trisnanda2026
ER  -