‘Like the Iranian oil workers who haunt Pennell, this is a film that refuses to get back in its box’ Sukhdev Sandhu, Sight & Sound
A filmmaker turns forensic detective as she pieces together hundreds of photographs in search of what she believes to be a buried history, only to find herself inside the story she is researching. The Host investigates the activities of British Petroleum (BP) in Iran; a tale of power, imperial hubris and catastrophe. While the tectonic plates of geopolitical conspiracy shift in the background, the film asks us to look, and look again, at images produced by the oil company, together with personal photos taken by its British staff in Iran– including the filmmaker’s parents– not for what they show, but for what they betray. The Host is about the stories we tell about ourselves and others, the facts and fictions we live by – and their consequences.
THE HOST (60 minutes, b/w & colour, 2015) dir. Miranda Pennell
