In a multiethnic and multireligious society like Malaysia, narratives of identity, nation, and collective memory are often embedded in various popular media such as books, television, and films. Historically, these narratives employ nostalgia to foreground a sense of togetherness and celebrate a common national past. In doing so, these popular media, unfortunately, inadvertently ignore the multilayered and nuanced experiences of Malaysians and the storytelling tends to focus on the contributions of one cultural group. Even the nostalgic framing of what Malaya and Malaysia look like demographically in these films tends to be idealised. Nostalgia is a commonly used rhetorical device in books and films that pivots on a yearning or desire for a past that does not exist or is no longer accessible. More importantly, nostalgia has political power that has and continues to shape populist and ethnonationalist rhetoric as it is often tied with ideas of identity, memory, and ideology. This chapter explores how nostalgia is utilised in Malaysian historical films, particularly Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan (2022), to shape narratives of race, identity, and nationalism. Set within Malaysia’s multiethnic context, the film’s portrayal of the Malay warrior hero, Mat Kilau, embodies a nostalgic idealisation of Malay-Muslim dominance during British colonial resistance. Using restorative nostalgia and Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of nation and narration, this chapter examines how these films create a nostalgic vision of an idealised past, promoting race-conscious narratives that often overlook Malaysia’s cultural plurality. By focusing on representations of the Malay warrior and the concept of Tanah Melayu, the chapter argues that these narratives reflect and reinforce contemporary Malay-Muslim insecurities, contributing to strengthen ethnonationalist rhetoric. This chapter highlights how such films manipulate nostalgia to create an imagined collective memory, fuelling nationalistic sentiments and potentially fostering exclusionary ideas about Malaysian identity.