Reception!

Reception! stars acclaimed actress Guslagie Malanda as a woman named Reception who is one of the last human translators on Earth. In the wake of a storage crisis that has seen the erasure of digital memory from personal devices, Reception works in a former parliament hemicycle that has been repurposed as a data center. She receives a transmission of a woman’s intimate memory. The woman speaks in Irish Gaelic and Reception interprets her experience into French, faithfully dictating to a machine that transcribes it to history in English. In this vigorous process of receiving and transitioning the woman’s memory, Reception’s own memory escapes her and goes rogue in the showspace. In a choreographed screen ballet, the memory moves onto Reception’s personal storage devices, enforcing the link between what we hold in our bodies and what is kept in the objects we carry with us.

Directed by Cécile B. Evans, Reception! leans on a strong ensemble — Guslagie Malanda, Alice L. Rekab, Cécile B. Evans — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about science fiction titles of 2024.