At the Guesthouse

Presented only in theatres..

This film is part of the FIFA Expérimental program Ces lieux qui nous habitent.

With this short film, artist Shirin Sabahi pursues her interest in built space, tracing the transformations of artefacts, architecture, and their images over time. She delivers a disquieting essay on a site, a house and its inhabitants, and the ensuing silence.
Drawn by the promise of an exceptional view of Mt. Fuji, a traveller stays overnight in the striking villa of a friend of a friend, overlooking Sagami Bay. The hope of seeing the mountain is disrupted by a storm, confining the guest indoors. The involuntary solitude prompts the villa’s storied past. Built shortly after World War II, the house once belonged to Horace Bristol, an American photojournalist known for his work with LIFE magazine, documenting post-war Japan and the Korean War. Bristol settled in this fishing village and together with a local carpenter built a series of houses on the cliff. His family struggled to forge a local connection in a country recently ravaged by US atomic bombs. Within the walls, a sense of alienation lingers. The film takes the viewers on an introspective visit to the house and its surroundings. Fuji emerges in various forms — an omnipresent image, an absentee on the night in question, and a well-known photographic brand. The grip of History on individual identity intertwines with the spaces one inhabits and the passage of time, turning merely visited tales into intimately hosted stories.