The Host

The Host

2015 · 60 min

While investigating her late parents’ involvement with the Anglo Iranian Oil Company (BP), the filmmaker comes across the letters of a petroleum geologist in Iran in the 1930s who was later to embark on a search for the origins of civilisation. The Host sets out on its own exploration, to decipher signs from the fragmented images buried in the BP archive. This journey through the past interweaves a number of stories drawn from both personal memory and the records of an imperial history, which builds a picture of a 20th-century colonial encounter. The Host is a personal essay film about the stories we tell about ourselves and others, the facts and fictions we live by, and their consequences. Followed by a discussion with Miranda Pennell.

Directed by Miranda Pennell

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Streaming

DocAlliance Films

Rent or Buy

DocAlliance Films

Make it a double feature

1h 15m together

The Host

Strange Object

Both from Miranda Pennell.

More from Miranda PennellSee all →

Human RadioHuman Radio · 2002
Human Radio
★ 7.02002
Movie
People dance in private moments of personal abandon across London in the summer of 2001. The film is the result of the director’s work with the first ten respondents to a local newspaper advertisement that she placed seeking ‘living-room dancers’ – people who love to dance behind closed doors.
Man Number 4Man Number 4 · 2024
Man Number 4
★ 6.52024
MovieDocumentary
Gaza, December 2023. A confrontation with a disturbing photograph on social media triggers questions about what it means to be an onlooker.
Strange ObjectStrange Object · 2020
Strange Object
★ 6.02020
MovieDocumentaryAnimation
An archival investigation into the imperial image-making of the RAF ‘Z Unit’, which determined the destruction of human, animal and cultural life across Somaliland, as well as Africa and Asia.
TroubleTrouble · 2023
Trouble
2023
Movie
A strange presence is haunting the images in the Crawford Collection, at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, and spreading across the city of London: an echo of the curse of the Pharaohs, a spectral menace is manifesting itself in the form of a mysterious malaise. - M. Mecca
TattooTattoo · 2001
Tattoo
2001
Movie
Drum RoomDrum Room · 2007
Drum Room
2007
Movie
The empty spaces of an ambiguous building open-up to reveal a group of aspiring musicians as they play together, alone. Drum Room reflects on relationships between individual and group, as young musicians express their collective and individual identities within the ordered conventions of the institution they inhabit.
Magnetic NorthMagnetic North · 2003
Magnetic North
2003
Movie
In Far Away LandIn Far Away Land · 2019
In Far Away Land
2019
MovieAnimationFantasy
Back stroke butterfly, front crawl and bras, we are awash in an ocean of bubbles. Meanwhile Captain Ahab sets sail on his magic carpet in search of the whale. All is not well in the world but Eden is there, fresh from her garden, tuning into “The Far Away Land”. We are deep in the cloud of our own making but help is at hand, and everything might yet be alright.
Why Colonel Bunny Was KilledWhy Colonel Bunny Was Killed · 2010
Why Colonel Bunny Was Killed
2010
Movie
The memoirs of a medical missionary on the Afghan borderlands provides the starting point for a film constructed from still photographs of colonial life on the North West frontier of British India at the turn of the 20th century. The film plays sound against image in a search for clues as to the stories behind images and finds striking continuities in Western portrayals of a distant place and people.
FistcuffsFistcuffs · 2004
Fistcuffs
2004
Movie
A Person of the ForestA Person of the Forest · 2026
A Person of the Forest
2026
MovieDocumentary
In this ghostly tale, Pennell turns her forensic eye to the history of the Dutch “cultivation system” in Indonesia. “I am a ghost returned to tell the tale from the place where the end began”, says the narrator, a stand-in for the many primates violently extracted from their jungle habitats to be exhibited in museums and fairs in Europe.
You Made Me Love YouYou Made Me Love You · 2005
You Made Me Love You
2005
Movie
Twenty-one dancers are held by your gaze. Losing contact can be traumatic. Twenty-one dancers play a game of cat and mouse with an unpredictable camera. Disoriented, the viewer is fixed by the gaze of dancers who crowd the frame. …On the one hand this is like looking at a group of aliens who have never seen anything like the camera (or you) before. The concentration of the faces on what is before them takes away their self-consciousness, and like a series of Thomas Ruff portraits they have an unsettling air of insouciance. But ultimately, the thought one is drawn to, and the allegory the title suggests, concern the contemporary obsession with becoming visible through some sort of brush with celebrity, however brief, demeaning or meaningless that might be.

More Like This

The Nativity StoryThe Nativity Story · 2006
The Nativity Story
★ 7.02006
MovieDrama
Mary and Joseph make the hard journey to Bethlehem for a blessed event in this retelling of the Nativity story. This meticulously researched and visually lush adaptation of the biblical tale follows the pair on their arduous path to their arrival in a small village, where they find shelter in a quiet manger and Jesus is born.
Swept from the SeaSwept from the Sea · 1998
Swept from the Sea
★ 6.41998
MovieDramaRomance
The film tells the story of Russian emigree and the only survivor from ship crash Yanko Goorall and servant Amy Foster in the end of 19th century. When Yanko enters a farm sick and hungry after the shipwreck, everyone is afraid of him, except for Amy, who is very kind and helps him. Soon he becomes like a son for Dr. James Kennedy and romance between Yanko and Amy follows.
The Last MistressThe Last Mistress · 2007
The Last Mistress
★ 5.82007
MovieDramaRomance
Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.
DeliciousDelicious · 2025
Delicious
★ 4.82025
MovieThrillerDrama
During their vacation in the French countryside, a wealthy German family becomes entangled with a young hotel worker harboring sinister intentions.
Meet the PatelsMeet the Patels · 2014
Meet the Patels
★ 7.02014
MovieRomanceComedy
Finding love is never easy. For Ravi Patel, a first generation Indian-American, the odds are slim. His ideal bride is beautiful, smart, funny, family-oriented, kind and—in keeping with tradition—Indian (though hopefully raised in the US). Oh, and her last name should be Patel because in India, Patels usually marry other Patels. And so at 30, Ravi decides to break up with his American girlfriend (the one who by all accounts is perfect for him except for her red hair and American name) and embark on a worldwide search for another Patel longing to be loved. He enlists the help of his matchmaker mother, attends a convention of Patels living in the US and travels to wedding season in India. Witty, honest and heartfelt, this comedy explores the questions with which we all struggle: What is love? What is happiness? And how in the world do we go about finding them?
Liberty Stands StillLiberty Stands Still · 2002
Liberty Stands Still
★ 5.32002
MovieThrillerAction
As the heir and current marketing director for one of the nation's biggest gun manufacturers, Liberty Wallace is indifferent to the atrocities made possible through her business and her CEO husband, Victor. On her way to see her actor lover, Liberty ends up chained to a food cart full of explosives -- all at the insistence of "Joe", a sniper whose young daughter was a victim of gun violence, and who now has Liberty in his sights.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter