Skip to main content

RAI FILM Festival takes place on 27-30 March 2025. Learn more.

Search our film database

The Guest

Directed by Kira de Hemmer Jeppesen

2012 – 20'

Synopsis

Following the personal story of a Danish first-time surrogate mother, ‘The Guest’ explores issues of maternal bonding, modern families, relatedness, and desired control over body and mind. We follow the mature surrogate and her female partner through the pregnancy, and through intimate interviews we are given a rare insight into the taboo and secretive world of surrogacy in Scandinavia. In a society where surrogacy is a legal grey area surrounded by much stigmatization, the surrogate and her family deal with prevailing social norms and the possible condemnation by the outside world. The surrogate expresses motivational factors, ethical considerations and thoughts about motherhood, family concerns, gift giving, LGBT rights, and alternative assisted reproduction.

RAI FILM Festival 2025

The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.