The Host

Like a photo album that gains its own life, the film advances in a fixed image, masterfully telling a tale. The Host combines the filmmaker’s personal memory with collective memory and shows the trick of a well armed matryoshka doll: how a family film can contain a whole country as well as a search for a personal mirror in which oneself is reflected. The Host houses several films. Using the keys of essay film, the director delves into the past of her parents as former British Petroleum workers in Iran. The investigation reveals the other side of the country and takes the form of a huge international allegation. Finally, Miranda Pennell’s invitation is firm: she forces the spectator to look behind the image, to unveil the other side of the photographs and the scanned personal belongings that she comes across until she finally finds herself, without any possible distance between the official and the private story.