THE HOST

Synopsis

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.

Director Biography

Miranda Pennell first trained in contemporary dance, and later studied visual anthropology. Her film and video work exploring different forms of collective performance whether dancers, soldiers or fight directors, has been broadcast internationally and shown in festival and gallery contexts. Her recent moving-image work uses archival materials as the starting point for a reflection on the colonial imaginary. Her film Why Colonel Bunny Was Killed (2010) was awarded best international film at the 2001 Images Festival, Toronto, Pennell’s feature-length film The Host (2015), which reworks material drawn from the archive of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP).