His House -- Tristan Farmer

Film Summary:

His House follows a refugee couple from South Sudan after they have been placed in government housing in England. Soon after moving in, it becomes apparent that the house is haunted, with both characters having individual spiritual encounters or hallucinations of the daughter they lost in their journey to England. The film follows both characters as they react to the haunting differently, with the husband, Bol, believing everything they brought from South Sudan is cursed and needs to be destroyed so they can create a new life in England; while the wife, Rial, believes they need to return to their homeland and atone for their sins.

Film Significance:

This film’s main purpose is to explore the mindset and experiences of refugees. The conflict between Bol and Rial’s reaction to their haunted house is a metaphor for how two immigrants or refugees might grapple with the question of assimilation and the struggle of culture shock. In this case, Bol represents the pure desire to assimilate into his new culture, even at the expense of holding onto the memories and culture of his home, while Rial represents the desire to reject the culture shock and return to her homeland, even if that place is dangerous to live in. Outside of these two characters, this film also has a nuanced exploration of how people in the western world treat immigrants and refugees as well as the underbelly of racism that motivates that mistreatment.

Bol's descent into madness

Rial's anger at Bol after he burns their daughter's necklace

Discussion Questions:

Do you think the supernatural situation that Bol and Rial are placed in is an effective metaphor for the internal struggles of many refugees/immigrants?

There are very few details given about the couples’ past within the movie (such as the fact that they are from South Sudan specifically), do you think more of these more “factual details” should’ve been put into the film or do you think it works better that we only see the “emotional details/story” of their past

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